Code Geass: The Force Unleashed
by MosesArk Reborn2000
Summary: Lelouch used to think that we were truly alone in this universe of ours. This belief was broken the he saw the truth that day ten years ago. Now we must rise from the shadows and return to Earth as students of the force and bring their peace, to unite them under one banner. One destroyed superpower at a time. Look out world. The force will set you free. Elements of KOTET and KOTFE.
1. From the Ashes, Rise anew

**Welcome readers, this story as you can already tell is not going to be a Fairy Tail based one but rather as crossover between Code Geass and Star wars. Now the timeline for the Star Wars part will be the era of the Return of the Sith Empire, so around the time of the old Republic, which is around 3 600 years before Luke blew up the first Death Star, of course the star wars dating isn't exact as I have no idea how long the Old Republic battled the Mandalorians for and then how long they fought the Sith Empire for so please bear with me if the dating is off. Because of this no fractions in this story will employ Clones as the tech needed to properly create them isn't available yet. I'm going to use the name for Earth used in Generation Tech's videos Earth versus series, and call it Sol-3, which is located in the unknown region of the Star Wars galaxy and as such, Earth is effectively cut off from the rest of the galaxy to explain why Earth is so primitive when compared to the Sith empire or Old Republic overall. This chapter is just a prelude to the actual which will explain the changes to the plot.**

 **Hope you enjoy.**

 **Chapter 1: From the Ashes, Rise anew**

 _ **August 18**_ _ **th**_ _ **2010 A.T.B/ 3 639BBY:**_

 _ **Unknown Region:**_

 _ **Milky Way Galaxy:**_

 _ **Sol-3/Earth:**_

 _ **Somewhere in central Japan**_

Fire….

That was the first thing he noticed. The light, the smell, the heat. Clouds of ash that blocked the sun… or stars, he couldn't remember what time it was, all he did know that it left the earth and everything near him illuminated by the fires and explosions in the distance.

Where…was he, why was he on his back?

He tried to turn his head, if only to get a better view of his situation but he was awarded with stab of pain in his neck, drawing a scream from his blood-stained lips and a _very_ bloody coughing fit with it. It felt like his bones were grating against each other when he tried again, but he managed to fight through as another wave of agony rolled over him.

What…What happened? His skull felt like he'd run head first into a wall.

Where the hell was he?

His attention was drawn to a flickering sign swung from the building opposite him, kanji just barely legible in the dim light.

Right

He was in Shinjuku Special Ward, Tokyo Japan. His father had ordered the invasion of the small island nation, after banishing them there….

What a minute… _THEM_

"Nunnally! Suzaku!" Lelouch tried to shout, but what came out was closer to a loud croak. He cleared his throat, spitting out the horrid taste of blood, dirt, smoke and saliva that gummed his month. "Where are you guys!" It took several attempts before he could finally stand as his right arm wasn't working like he wanted, leaning against a bullet hole filled wall for support, he could feel the broken bones shriek in protest. "Guys, where are you?!" He yelled as he made out a faint whisper from the other side of crater.

Crater…yes…he remembered now.

Suzaku, Lelouch and Nunnally were making their way to the courthouse to seek the fragments of JGSDFs who had set up a perimeter there, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building had fallen from what they had heard so they were desperately making their way to the courthouse for shelter, apparently Suzaku's father was there as well so they were guaranteed protection for the most part.

They had been on the move for around four hours, each boy would take turns carrying Nunnally while the other rested so that they would have the stamina to run in case of emergencies or in the more dire situations, so that one can kill their aggressors…

They had ran into too many vengeful Japanese and trigger happy Britannians not to have such a countermeasure.

He remembered walking ahead of Suzaku, who was carrying Nunnally at the time to check around the corner…when…when he heard the unmistakable sound of an air to ground missile, he rushed back to them as fast as his legs would allow and he and Suzaku wrapped up Nunnally with their bodies to shield her the best they could…

Then…then nothing.

Was that what happened? The missile struck and they were blown apart from each other, so the crater was the result of a Brit air strike on the area. They were laying down an air strike on a civilian populace!

'No, I can rage about that later! I need to find them first, nothing else matters!' Lelouch thought to himself as he slowly made his way to the source of the sound, each movement sending pain throughout his small body. 'Okay from what I can tell, I broke a few ribs, my collarbone and my right arm.'

Wait a minute…?

'I can't feel my right arm, like nothing.'

Lelouch was scared, scared shitless in fact but he knew like with the food rations they found the other day. You need to take inventory of what you have and what's what.

In this gruesome case…if he had all his parts. So he looked down

His left leg was bleeding a lot from the shin, and walking with it hurt like a mother but was manageable for the time being. His right leg looked fine till he spotted the small piece of steel sticking out of his thigh, looks like the same stuff used in reinforced buildings. 'Blast must have lodge it there' he thought to himself as the apparent reasons for his slow movements were laid bare to his eyes.

It was his right arm that stole his breath…

Or rather what was left of it.

From his elbow down, it was a bloody mess, it could see bone sticking out in a few places and the muscles looked like it was put through a blender for God's sake. He couldn't process this for a couple of seconds till he resigned himself to a life without it, he had more pressing matters to attend to worry about his arms.

He limped through the rubble of the fallen buildings and dug up pavement towards his only reasons for living, catching a glimpse of his reflection in one of the few windows still intact.

He look like crap.

A ghostly visage stared back at him, eyes sunken with dark rings hanging under them, best guess from the lake of sleep he had been having and blood-loss, his face and hair caked with white dust and grey ash from the nearby fires. The only patches of colour to been seen was the crimson trails of blood from his nose, month, above his hairline and the diagonal slash across his left cheek, properly shrapnel, the scab appearing black in the dim light reflecting off the water puddles. Another mewl of pain grabbed his attention back to his current objective.

He shook his head to clear the spots in his vision and made his way towards it, he needed to focus.

He made out the shapes of two small bodies lying on the ground in front of him, one wasn't moving and the other was struggling to move from the look of things, so he pushed himself to go as fast as he could to reach them. To his answered prays, it was Nunnally and Suzaku but just so he knew how much the universe enjoys his suffering, he saw that although alive, they were in bad shape.

Nunnally was trying to keep Suzaku awake, he had taken the blast head-on, or in this case face on and his face was a mess of blood and muscle, it was centred around his left side of his face, giving him a two face appearance, he also had wounds all around his torso and left arms with a large gash just above his heart and his left arm being covered with 3rd degree burns, it was easy to see he was barely hanging on as is.

Nunnally was…

Of god…

Her right leg was gone. Everything below the knee was simply gone, leaving a thrice damned messy stump in its place, she was covered in dirt and some blood leaked out of her nose but as cold as it was, he was happy that it was just a leg. He was brought to the here and now once more when he heard her frantic pleas.

"Suzaku! Suzaku please! You have to get up! Please!" Nunnally begged the semi-conscious boy as he gazed into the smoke clouds ahead with a pained eye.

"Suzaku…" Lelouch muttered as he collapse in the fallen boys others, Nunnally quickly turning her closed eyes to the sound of the oh so familiar voice, happy that they was _some_ good news.

"Lelouch…" Suzaku muttered as he turned his only open eye to his best friend, drinking in the damage he went through from that last hit.

"Big brother are you alright!?" Nunnally demanded as she once more cursed her blindness as she couldn't see her brother and to see for herself if he was alright. Lelouch chose his words carefully as the spots returned to his vision, telling him that he was about to go under.

"…For the most part, listen Suzaku, you have to get up, and we need to move." Lelouch told her softly as he turned to look at his near still friend, pleading for him to stand and get his sister out of there.

"I don't think I can, take Nunnally and get out of here, I'm a lost cause." Came Suzaku's honest reply before he descended into a coughing fit, nearly not hearing Nunnally pleas for him to stay awake as Lelouch tried to stop his blood loss by covering the wound with some of his torn up clothes and keeping pressure with his one hand.

"What! No! We aren't leaving a friend behind, you have to come with this!" Nunnally yelled out, not having it. She refused to leave one of the people presence to her like this, not now not ever!

"I don't think I can Suzaku, my right arm's been torn to shreds and my legs can barely support my weight as is…truth is that I don't think I can get up again, I can feel the numbness setting in" Lelouch told him grimly as he had tried to stand but couldn't get his legs to work, it seems he had pushed them too far. The three just laid there, looking and listening to the sounds of battle and death, hating every bit of it.

For Suzaku, it was pained by the sounds of his people, his countrymen being killed in mass with no remorse, just like the village they had passed through the other day that was razed to the ground, even though it was just women and children with no soldiers to speak of. He wished there was something he could do something, _anything_! To stop the bloodshed but as he was, he couldn't even lift his arms, much less fight to stop this.

For Lelouch, his rage and disgust for his homeland grew by the second as he took in the sights and smells of what Britannia was really was like, he was angered and repulsed by the fact that his country men were enjoying this senseless slaughter, this _madness_. All for some damned fuel and super-conductors that he knows his sperm donor of a _father_ will just use to empower his wretched war-machine and do the same to other countries, other people.

For Nunnally, she cried her eyes out because of the carnage around, she wasn't stupid, she knew exactly what was going on around them, she knew how many destroyed villages her brother and dear friend had carried her through, lying all the way about the smell. She never said anything since she knew how much they did for her and how her brother didn't wish for her to be stained and broken like him. She kept her silence for this and played along, so they could act like it was fine. But now that was gone as her the closest people to her were too injured to fight, that hurt more than the missing limb.

They all just sat there, broken and defeated, awaiting for death to claim them and be done with it. After a few minutes they all heard the unmistakable sound of RAF fighter jet flying nearby, Lelouch looked up with dead eyes as the jet fighter that had outclassed its Japanese counterparts in everything but speed and armour came flying down towards them, no doubt mistaking them for Japanese civilians survivors and arming its missiles for a final run, but he had a feeling it wouldn't matter even if the pilot know who they were. They were banished children with only Nunnally still having any legitimate claim to the throne.

However where-as the Universe and perhaps God himself had turned their back on them, the force smiled down from on high and gave grace.

Just as the pilot primed his next shot to exterminate the Japanese vermin, his radar picked up a UFO (And no, this just means it was a identified flying object, not a flying saucer, those were rare even in the Star Wars universe) this confused him as he was told the Japanese air force was all but wiped out with what little assets they had left had fled to Hokkaido, why would one be this far in central Honshu. Just as he turned to meet the incoming threat, he was shot out of the sky by a green blast of energy. His last thought being of what just happened before he crushed into a nearby building.

Lelouch was stunned to say the least, he had never seen such a weapon before, from what he could tell, it wasn't a missile but some kind of shot from a cannon of some kind. He wondered about where it came from until he saw it.

This…alien fighter zoomed past where the fighter once was and fly around for a bit, everything about it screamed foreign, from the smaller than usual size, mainly black and white colour scheme to its v looking wing design on either side of the body.

"What was that?" He muttered to himself as he saw the fighter apparently fly off.

"So you saw it too…thought I was going crazy there for a minute." Suzaku replied, having heard him over everything else. However it seems the surprises weren't done yet as the fighter returned but this time being tailed by 4 others fighters, apparently the rest of its Flight Squad, but that wasn't the wield part, the wield part was that they were flying way too slow to stay in the air, if he didn't know any better he would say that were acting like VTOLs but he couldn't see anything in the design to prove this. Another thing that stuck out was the 6th UFO, this one was very different from the rest as it was larger for one and looked like some kind of helicopter without any rotor blades. The 6 aircraft started to descend and to his and Suzaku's confusion, they were preparing to land in the same street as them.

It didn't take long for all six to land, the landing much more quiet to what was used to, clearly these things had much more quiet engines or some kind of noise silencer, they also didn't same amount of kick-up of dirt and dust as the similarly sized aircraft he had seen, he would actually compare it too aircraft half their size. The fighters landed first but no pilots emerged, either choosing to stay in their cockpits or they were drones like some of the UAVs he and Suzaku had witness wipe out ground troops, the last to land was the shuttle like vehicle. Once it did Lelouch did his best to move in front of his sister and friend as he was the only one who still move, even if he was still having trouble getting up, he resolved himself to die staring death in the face rather cowering from it like the pure and innocent child he once was.

The shuttle touched down and with a mechanical hiss, the forward ramp dropped down, allowing for 8 oddly but still intimidating soldiers to quickly despatch and spread around, creating a small perimeter. After around 40 seconds, Nunnally heard one of them speaking into his helmet.

'Site secured, ready for pick-up' the unnamed soldier reported to his superiors. Shortly after this three more people came out of the shuttle, rushing toward the children with one of them carrying what looked like medical supplies, Lelouch would have been more alert if their features didn't catch him off guard.

The first one was clearly not human as…she, she looked like a she, anyway she was wearing some kind of plate armour covering her chest, arms and legs with a black body-glove underneath, what set her off from most was a red skin and long tentacle like growths coming out of her head with crystal blue eyes.

The second one was human, of that he had no doubt but the way he moved spoke of years of military training, the full body armour helped to sell that. He had tanned skin, brown hair and pule brown eyes. He wasn't in his prime since he looked to be at least 40 but he still had a dangerous air to him.

The last one, the one carrying the medical supplies, wasn't wearing any armour but a set of robes instead which including a hoodie, the hoodie was off which gave him a chance to see her face.

And it was stunning.

She was pale, but somehow still incredibly attractive, was young, maybe 17 or 18 going by her size compared to his memory of his elder sisters and the height difference between her and the redskin female. She had the purest shade of white hair cut in a bob-cut, and the prettiest shade of red eyes, he had ever seen. She had air of gentleness to her that was an honestly refreshing breath of fresh air to him since he had been surrounded by death, destruction and chaos for a while now. She made to them first and immediately started working on Suzaku.

"Come on now, stay with me and we'll get you all patch up." She spoke, her voice, her voice sounding older than it should but the gentle words and kind undertone pushed passed that quite easily. Lelouch was lost gazing at her till he broke himself out of it, he didn't know her and what she was doing.

"Who are you, what are you doing to Suzaku?" Lelouch asked as loud as he could, but his exhaustion and injuries catching up with him preventing him from speaking that loud. She turned to look at him for a moment before replying.

"My name is Reyla Ventress, you need not worry young one for I'm a friend you see. As for what I'm doing, I'm trying to stabilize your friend before he goes into shock." She told him gently before she carried on. Before the conversation could continue the older gentlemen spoke.

"Listen kiddies, I know this a bad time but we here to give you a choice and you don't have much time to make it." He said with a voice of authority and bass that it seldom heard in this day and age. His steel eyes appraising the group of children with a hint of compassion.

"A choice?" Nunnally asked as Suzaku was unable to reply to the cryptic message.

"Yes, ours leaders…sensed your potential and wished to take you three under their wing to train you to reach said potential. As you can tell by out appearance, we ain't from around here. We were sent to be your escorts but we didn't know a position till a few minutes ago. Apologies for getting her later than intended." The man told them with a sincere tone as he wished to extract the kids _before_ they were hurt like this.

"You want to help us?" Nunnally asked him, hope leaking into her voice for the first time in days.

"Yes we do. Our masters will take care of the three of you, they will train you to become the people this world needs. They are sick of conflict you see, so they left their own behind to search for a better path and we found your planet by mere chance. However it seems this planets does not have a unified government body, just warlords and honourless cowards who fight each other for foolish reasons, leaving the innocent to suffer for their sins. We can give you the power you need to change that, to right the wrongs and end the apocalypse." The kind girl treating Suzaku added, gaining Lelouch's interest as although he wished for revenge, he could see it would better to ensure this fate never befalls someone else. The barely awake Suzaku wished to end the madness before it destroyed everything, to hear he could do that was a light to hold on to. The two boys shared a look for but a moment but in that moment, they made the decision to will change their lives, for better or for worse.

"The power of the Force will make you walk a path very few have…or can. It will feel lonely at times but if you push through it all, you will find that it was worth it all and more. Do you accept?" The elder female asked them, speaking for the first time. The three children quickly thought it over before coming to the unified decision.

"Yes"

And with that reply, they were all carried into the shuttle, in Suzaku's case, hovered in on some kind of hover bed, man these people really aren't from around here, his father would literally kill for that technology. They were all placed in a small med bay and tended to by personal in grey medical uniforms before the shuttle and its escort lifted off and flew away from Tokyo, away from Japan. Leaving nothing but their blood and Nunnally severed limb behind. While they were being treated the, elder man walked by the med bay and to his hidden joy, he heard the three children laughing after Suzaku made a joke about Lelouch's poor physical fitness.

'It seems that they are stronger than most, being able to laugh after that' he thought to himself as he walked right on by to the bridge of the vessel.

It didn't take long for them to reach low orbit, a sight that Lelouch would never forget, gazing at the Earth from such a height, made all his problems seem…small in comparison in the big picture.

It was soon announced in the comms that the shuttle would be speed up to cruising speed and that they will reach the Moon in around 3 hours.

Wait…the MOON!

"Man, this day keeps getting crazier and crazier by the minute" Suzaku muttered to himself, finally able to breath properly after his short but great first aid session.

"Brother, are we really going to the Moon?" Nunnally asked Lelouch from her position on her bed, Lelouch looked over to her and nodded his head.

"Yeah, I think so." He told her before thinking but to the world him and his new family (He'll never consider himself a Britannia again after what they did to him).

"Lelouch, how long do you think…Japan will…last?" Suzaku asked, concerned for his father, mother and cousin, Kaguya. Lelouch hoped to avoid this as he had been thinking about this for a while now but he didn't want to tell his dear friend. He could lie and say they would win…but sometimes the cold, hard truth is better than a soft lie.

"…Hard to say, without any support from the E.U or the Federation, they would burn through their supplies and stockpiles in around five months against the empire, but…as it's now with the losses they suffered, they won't last another month." Lelouch told him, sadden by the fact that when it came down to it, Japan was outgunned, outmatched and outnumbered on all front since the JMSDF was soundly destroyed around three days into the conflict, with the air force beaten back once their air fields were seized and taken. The only good thing was Tohdoh beating them back at Itsukushima but was forced back when he ran out of supplies.

The shuttle flew for a while before they reached the moon, in that time the medics came by around two more times to check on them. They two boys did ask for a window seat so that they could gaze into the vastness of space to pass the time.

But nothing prepared them for when they saw it.

They had reached the dark side of the Moon and in its shadow, away from any scanners or satellites from earth, they saw an absolutely massive space ship, bigger than any earthman vessel by a long shot. It was grey in colour and designed wedge shape. It was majesty given form with how sleek and refined it looked. Around this vessel were 9 smaller ones that could their versions of escorts or destroyers. They were also dozens of those fighters flying around the small fleet.

"That is the Harrower Class Dreadnought, it was an Imperial Sith ship till my parents and their allies stole it, since then it has been…modified." A new voice said, scaring the dickens out of the three kids. Lelouch and Suzaku turned to the new person to see a young girl around their age, with red skin, head tentacles and brown eyes. She was wearing a simple set of grey pants and a sleeveless shirt and google head gear. Suzaku once setting his eyes on her felt absolutely smitten.

"Is that right, and who might you be?" Lelouch asked, getting tired of these surprises.

"Your funny, don't know it's impolite to ask for introductions without first introducing yourself." The new girl giggled.

"She's got you there big brother." Nunnally added, letting a small smile show.

"That is true, forgive me. My Name is Lelouch, just Lelouch, this is my younger sister Nunnally and the nincompoop who is gawking at you is Suzaku, don't worry about him he isn't so good at first impressions." Lelouch told her with a smile as his words knocked Suzaku out of his stupor, leaving to glare at him for making look stupid.

"That's fine, my names Kaya Vesna. I'm 12 cycles old." The newly named Kaya told them, getting confused for a moment.

"Cycles?" Nunnally asked, having never heard of such a dating system.

"It's the intergalactic equivalent to what you Earthlings call years, the planet of Coruscant has a similar rotation around its sun to yours, so she just saying she's 12 years old." The elder gent came by again. "By the way, I'm her father, names Stephen Vesna. Stephen told them as he walked in and placed a hand on Kaya's shoulder.

"Anywaaaaayy!...as I said that is the Harrower Class and the smaller ships are Terminus Class Destroyers and some Gage-Class Transport, the transport are the smaller ones." Kaya spoke once more drawing the attention back to her. She was pointing at the numerous ships flying around. "I don't know why you joined…but be prepared for some hell." Kaya told them with a teasingly cheeky smile that reminded Lelouch of a certain Ashford heiress while it reminded Suzaku of a certain smart lipped cousin of his.

 **Well that the prelude for you guys, hope you like it. As you can see I have using Imperial sith stuff as in my humble opinion, it looks much better than anything the republic had at the time. As you can tell, Lelouch, Suzaku and Nunnally are all force sensitive and the 'masters' senses this when they came to the milky way, they didn't sense it from known star wars space as that would attract more…unkind individuals to Earth and divided as it is in the Code Geass universe, they would be conquered and enslaved within months with pocket resistance movements here and there. As you can tell from the descriptions, Kaya is a Twi'lek-Human Hybrid. Her father is a human warrior from Mandalore and Reyla is a Dathomirian. You can guess that Kaya's mother is the older red skinned Twi'lek. Her name will be revealed in the next chapter which will take place 10 years in the future. The reason for this is that I need them to have some star destroyers and other vessels of his own to use, that kind of construction takes time, especially since he doesn't have the backing of a major player in both the CG and SW universe making it even harder as he has to hide his projects as to not attract unwanted attention. There's also the fact I have to squeeze actual force training into this timeframe as I think it's reasonable. Before you all start asking yourself why Lelouch is giving up his vengeance is because he wants to make a world where his friends and sister can find happiness, which he can now do without all that teenage rebel stuff. Make no mistake, he WILL ignite a rebellion but a lot of his failings from cannon wont hinder him and since he has allies to fall on, he will have more support in both command and emotionally.**

 **Suzaku in this timeline did not have the chance to confront Genbu and subsequently kill him, so he won't have that baggage he has in cannon where he does not trust himself and rather relies in the system, this will make more likable and less…dickhead like in nature. He won't become like Lelouch as the two will still be each other's folds and argue on a lot of things like best friends and commanders do but he will be more reasonable and likeable…after he has his face fixed since Euphie won't give him a chance with him looking a Batman villain.**

 **Also as some of you have already guessed, Kaya will be their new Milly/Kagura for the next seven years, I doing this as they will spend next to no time on Earth as they will doing almost all their training off world on the dreadnought or other planets in the outer rim, also because those two need a Milly like character in their lives to remind them to have fun and to goof off from time to time, I mean after all, their just teenagers. And the fighters he saw were Mark VI Supremacy Class Starfighter with the shuttle being an Old Republic era Imperial Shuttle.**


	2. The more things Change…

**Well here it is, the second chapter of this story of mine, as I said in the first one, this takes place ten years later and of course I'll recap just what went down in those seven years so we all know what they have been up to. I know that this should be obvious but due to their training and the fact that Britannia does not have a pilot in Area 11 beside Jeramiah that can even move the Lancelot means that it will be used quite differently than in cannon.**

 **Chapter 2: The more things Change…**

 _ **March 11**_ _ **th**_ _ **2020 A.T.B/ 3 629BBY:**_

 _ **Unknown Region:**_

 _ **Milky Way Galaxy:**_

 _ **Mars**_

 _Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!_

The alarm sounded, breaking the quiet of the early morning here in the red planet r more specifically, the silence of a bedroom with closed blinds. It went on for another few moments before a small petite hand emerged from the covers of the bed next to the nightstand with the guilty culprit. It felt around for the alarm clock for a couple of seconds before it successfully found it and hit the stop button. Afterwards the blankets moved around a bit before something rose under it. A moment later a head pop out, revealing that the now awake person just had wrapped themselves in the blanket. The head was one of fair skinned young girl with brown hair with a strand of it covering her left eye, leaving only a right eye to be seen.

Her open right eye.

Nunnally yawned to get the sleep out of her system, before she looked around her room. It wasn't anything special. It had a double bed, nightstand, drawer for her cloths, desk and holo-projector for when she studied and some posters of animals on the walls along with a set of drums and a keyboard in the corner of the room. There was also a small flat screen on the wall that was left on, she had a PS3 plugged in and a Guitar Hero guitar-controller lazily left in front of it. The screen still paused mid song, she kept the blinds shut till she was fully awake. ' _Another day as they say'_ Nunnally thought to herself as she got out of bed and stood up, revealing more of her aged body.

She was tall for her age, just like her brother, standing at a height of 164cm/ 5.3 feet tall. She had let her hair grow out to reach her lover back and clearly taken care of it has it was as wavy as ever. She was on the skinny side but did have some muscles poking out of her nightgown but the biggest thing was not the fact that she could see but rather that she could walk.

Even if one of her legs was a cybernetic synthetic from the knee down.

The new limb was very well design was even through the colour told you it was fake, the way it was built near perfectly mimicked how the leg of a young teen human girl would look like. She walked over to her drawer and got her toothbrush, toothpaste, face cloth and personal soap before heading to the joining bathroom, grabbing her towel before she closed the door. When she entered, she placed her stuff by the sink, grabbed her toothbrush, placed some paste on it, wet it with the cool tap water and started her daily routine. As she did this she thought back to how much had happened in the past few years.

Ten years to be accurate.

The first eight months were the hardest emotionally, Suzaku had to have 8 different surgeries to fix the damage done to his face alone, and had to have a lung transplant. Nunnally herself had to have an artificial leg attacked to her while her other leg went through numerous surgeries and other drug based treatment just so that it could hold her weight again, the same with her thighs and eyes, even if the damage done was minimal or psychological in nature.

Her brother…on the other hand suffered much worse.

They only found out around three days after they left that he was getting sick, at the time they didn't think much of it and presumed that it was just a flu intensified by being in space where gravity was lower, but they were wrong. So very wrong.

One day, he didn't came for breakfast and she got worried, Reyla offered to check on him and left to do so.

Her scream would haunt Nunnally's dreams for months to come.

He had gone to into shock due to his kidneys failing, it had seem that the blast that took his arm had damaged most of his organs and had caused small cracks and tears to form, these grew over time and soon afterwards, even his left lung started showing signs of failure. It pained her more than anything to imagine him, stuck in a hospital bed connected to all sorts of life support, oblivious to it all due to the painkillers they put into him to null the agonising pain of your own body shutting down. Afterwards it took three secret visits to Earth to acquire organs of his blood type and 6 operations to stabilize him.

Although as much as she didn't like it, her brother found a silver lining in not just her and Suzaku's occasional presence (Due to his own surgeries and rest schedules) but in Reyla as well, who would stay with him most hours of the day.

Turns out he develop a bit a crush on the older women, even if the than 11 year old Lelouch would deny it.

She was like his personal nurse and couldn't mind it in himself not to make her smile, it was nice…seeing her brother displaying emotions like any boy should be allowed to rather than the closed off protector he was becoming. With her encouragement, he went from a wheelchair to a cane in just two months.

It was only after he was able to walk around without his cane that he allowed to begin treatments on fixing up his arm, although from what she overheard, he had to have numerous implants placed into it to restore all motor and neuron functions.

Afterwards, the 'masters' saw it fit to see them. The first was old man who after his explanation, revealed that he was once a Sith Lord but had left the sith after finding no fulfilment in that path. The second one was a middle aged Jedi master who told them that she left the order after disagreeing with how they ran things. The two had met and joined forces on a path of enlightenment. They were more than a bit surprised to learn that the three of them were force sensitive and that when the two force masters arrive in their star system, they had felt this. Of course they didn't believe since half of what they claim to do was impossible.

She can still remember how hard she gawked when the former Jedi lifted a table with his mind and through it at them, only for Suzaku to stop it mid-flight.

The point was they made their point.

Afterwards they were all given their new training regimen. The first thing was finishing therapy before any of them could think of anything else, something that took another 4 months to do. Afterwards it was language and basic knowledge, she was happy to see her brother struggle in an academic subject for once but to be fair, to learn another new alphabet and dialect was nothing to scoff at. Next was basic (at least by Intergalactic standards) mechanic and engineering, after all you must be able to carry out basic repairs on both your ship, weapons and lightsabers. Kaya was a big help her since for all her pranks and teasing, she was a prodigy when it came to engineering and mechanics. Plus if the looks that Suzaku would give her were any sign, he had found his crush as well.

After three years, they could pass off as three regular kids on Naboo if they had to.

That when the real training started. They were first taken by Stephen to his home-world of Mandalore, it was…interesting. Being on another planet like that, much more one that culture revolved around fighting. What was that Lelouch said?

'My god, it's like being on a planet of Spartans and Scots combined!'

Yeah that was it, he really didn't like the 9 hour training sessions. Even Suzaku struggled to keep up with their standards. But hey Mandalore didn't produce the best warriors and soldiers out of thin air and after the two years, even Nunnally had the skill, speed and strength to kill the ass of most earth born and trained soldiers, and she was only 11!

Afterwards they travelled to Moon of Endor to train in the ways of the force by studying the three principles: Control; Sense and Alter. She will admit to herself that she was and still is jealous of her brother, as he was a master when it came to control, learning and mastering a few of them to the level of force masters who spent at least 20 years studying them in nine months. Even now he outclassed both her and Suzaku in that regard. His connection to the force appeared to be of the observer and thinker than the fighter, something that suited him nicely.

Suzaku on the other hand was a whiz when it came to Alter, as he was the most combat suited of the three, he group generate the strongest force based attacks of the three of them, his connection to the force appeared to almost completely revolve around combat.

Nunnally on the other hand was the best when it came to sense as she was able to detect life on distant planets so long as she was in the same system, while Lelouch could only detect life within a 4 500km range and Suzaku with a much smaller range of only 800km. she was quite proud of herself for being good at something her fellow students weren't, but she supposed that they all were. In a way that made their dynamic much more fluid as each one could do something the other could not and could cover each other's weaknesses.

By the time she had finished her little thought session, she had finished her morning shower and had dressed in her usual attire, white robes with her lightsaber securely strapped to her belt on her left side. **(Just imagine the robes worn by Jedi temple guards)**

'Mine…It makes it worth it, being left on Jakku was a week with only enough food and water for three days to find the crystal' Nunnally remembered with a shiver as she took longer than expected to even find one, but the force clearly smiled down on her that trip. She finished her business, open the blinds to see the far reaching deserts of the red planet, turned off Guitar Hero and the TV since she wasn't coming back here for a while and left her room with the door swishing close behind her, she walked for a while before reaching the area where Lelouch and Suzaku's rooms were. Just as she turned the corner, she saw Suzaku walk out of his room.

"Morning Suzaku." She called out as she rushed over and gave him a big hug, he chuckled a bit before returning it. Now these seven years had been kind to him, despite the fact he had to wear a mask to cover his lower face and has a scar across the left side of his face, he recovered relatively well and his eyes still have the kindness they always had in them, it helped that he had been on some dates, apparently even alien girls dig the scars. He was wearing a blue cloak over green body armour which protected his chest thighs, shins, shoulders and forearms, his two lightsaber latched into either side of his belt. His brown hair had been allowed to grow a little longer with some parts of it tied into little braids that made him look even adorable.

"Morning short stuff, how you sleep?" Suzaku asked, his voice slightly altered by the mask but still carrying that same old kindred with it, if not the teasing tone he was using to address her, she instantly broke the hug to glare at him with a pout.

"I told you! I'm not short, I'm above average for my age." She told him as she even placed her hand on her head to prove her point, he just chuckles more at her pouting.

"Not around here little missy." Suzaku told her before they both made their way to Lelouch's room.

"Jerk" Nunnally muttered as she fell in step with him. The walk wasn't a long one, as even after getting in shape, the pretty buy didn't like exercise, so they would reach his room soon.

"You think he's the only one in there." Suzaku asked, making light conversation at the expense of his 'dear' friend.

"Knowing him, he and Reyla are probably still asleep." Nunnally told with snicker as she remembered the time she walked in on those two in a make-out session in the infirmary.

It made sense _WHY_ he was always getting hurt and heading there, smart guy.

"How you know it ain't another girl? There are more than a few on site out age…or close enough." Suzaku countered with a tone that told her he was smirking right now, Nunnally counted with a smirk of her own and a dismissive wave of the hand.

"Please, unlike you and your on again off again thing with Kaya, he's been with the Reyla since he was 15, besides you saw the two of them last night at the party." Nunnally told him as they both recalled they he and Reyla had stayed to themselves the previous night and then vanished around 10pm.

It was obvious to everyone that she was giving him his _reward_ in a more… _private_ setting.

"Yeah, no kidding on the night he celebrates mastering Form VII, he gets laid…lucky bastard." Suzaku muttered, still pissed that Lelouch beat him to mastery of form VII, even if he knows he didn't have the anger and bloodlust required to even begin the process, it was just he and Lelouch never like it when the other outdid them.

It was the whole reason that Lelouch badgered Tohdoh for two whole months to teach him Aikido, just so he could for once win against Suzaku in a sparring match and not have his ass handed to him.

"You're just jealous he lost his V-card before you." Nunnally teased as she walked ahead of him and faced him, enjoying the fact she got under his skin.

"It was three weeks dammit!" Suzaku told her, tired that she was still holding this over his head. He focused on training, so he didn't noticed the chemistry between Lelouch and Reyla till after he walked in on them while they were being…intimate.

By the way, it hurt like hell to be thrown into a wall by force push just for 'cock blocking', hurt worse when everyone else heard about. Stephen didn't stop laughing for a full three minutes.

"Yet it was three weeks before you." Nunnally clearly had time to think about, that or she had her brother annoying ability to predict your words. They soon reached the door and knocked.

"Yo Lelouch, wakey wakey sleeping beauty, cuddle times over! Its breakfast!" Suzaku announced as he knocked on the door.

(Inside the room)

Inside the locked room, it look like any teenage boys wound, there was a drawer and closest, the closet having a poster if a E.U rock band by the name of Linkin Park, there was a stand in the corner of the room that held an electric guitar while an acoustic guitar was mounted in the wall over the drawer. There was a desk with a computer and holo-projector. The computer having two monitors with an open case for Medal of Honour: Euro fighter next to the keyboard. There was a small TV set with a PS3 in the corner with two controllers still plugged but otherwise off. There were a few more posters on the war, mostly of Dark Fantasy and Snipers but nothing else. Like with Nunnally's room, the blinds on the windows were still closed.

On a king sized bed were two distinctly humanoid shapes, both covered by a very thin bed sheet. On closer inspection, we can see a head of black hair stinking out with another one of white hair. Both still soundly asleep enjoying their time of rest.

"Yo Lelouch, wakey wakey sleeping beauty, cuddle times over! Its breakfast!"

Till that happened.

One eye snapped open faster than a viper's strike. Revealing an annoyed looking violet before the rest of the body moved, lifting himself off the bed and out of the covers, revealing himself to not only be extremely fit for someone of his age along with the blaster scar on his chest but that he had tattoos running up his left wrist up to his right pectoral, the design that of eastern dragons and one which looked like the Alchemic symbol for fire but with a capital 'T' looking shape coming out of the top of it. This served as a mark that he was trained by the Mandalorians instructor Stephen of Clan Frizla. Something that earned him a lot of recognition on Mandalore itself.

Oh and he was stark naked.

Lelouch stretched a bit to get the sleep out of his system before he made his way over to the bathroom.

"Must he be so loud?" Lelouch asked himself, not really expecting an answer.

"If you didn't sleep in, he wouldn't need to be." Reyla answered, a playful smile on her face as she faced away from him and stayed in bed.

"What can I say, being in bed with you certainly beats most activities." Lelouch responded, playing along with her teasing since he loves it when she lets her hair down.

"Oh...is that right, so you're saying you would quit your gambling to be in the same bed as me?" Reyla asked, gently smiling as she turned to face him on the bed.

"I'm pretty sure I've left matches at your beck and call, my lady." Lelouch responded cheekily as he entered the bathroom to get ready.

"Hey Sleeping Beauty, get up already!" Suzaku called out again, this time with a laugh at the end of it.

"I heard you the first time you asshole, don't need to make me deaf!" Lelouch shot back from the bathroom, now annoyed that Suzaku was clearly enjoying interrupting his private time.

"You don't know help do you?" Suzaku asked, a teasing note in his tone as he struggled to keep his laughter in check

"Try to come in here again and this time, I'll force blast you to Jupiter!" Lelouch roared from the bathroom, purposely ignoring the fact that Reyla was giggling her not so little pretty ass off at his expense.

(Later-in the mess hall)

After an embarrassing morning wake-up call. The four found themselves in the mess hall, all around soldiers, technicians, doctors and other stuff sat about enjoying their morning meal, while exchanging jokes and banter, giving the large hall a nice friendly atmosphere. The four have been joined by Kaya who just came from the R&D labs having spent the whole night working a new type of Knightmare. She nearly had a heart attack when their agents on Sol-3 got a hold of some Sakuradite and a 3rd gen Glasgow and ever since she had been determined to create the 'ultimate weapons' for her lovely little devicer A.K.A Suzaku.

Reyla was wearing her medical staff uniform, only this one was for a full fledge doctor rather than field medic. The uniform consisted of yellow scrubs and a blue lab coat. Lelouch was wearing his regular robes ( **Just imagine the attire of the one worn by the Thexen in the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion pack** ) along with a black and purple cloak with his dual lightsabers secured to his sides. Kaya wore a blue mechanic's overalls with dark brown boots, she was still covered with oil and grime from the labs which was just a glorified garage.

"I'm telling you guys! Once I'm done with the Stalker Mk IV, not even those little Sunderlands and Gloucesters will stand a chance against us!" Kaya told them with that crazed look in her eye as she imagined her latest creation tearing through anything earth could field.

"I'm still not set on the name here: Stalkers sounds way too imperial." Reyla said, still not liking the name of the things, even if its fits if you have seen them in person.

"We want them to fear the name Reyla, it wouldn't do to call it the 'Peacemaker' or something." Suzaku told her as he had to remove his mask to eat, luckily no-one called him out on the scars since they either knew what happened or had seen much worse.

"Plus I'm pretty sure that there is a pistol with the name; we want to be original after all." Nunnally told him, having seen a pistol with a similar name in one of her brothers IFS games.

"I just waiting for the R&D lab to finish my new sniper rifle, can't wait to get it out to the range." Lelouch told them as he imagined the firepower he would have to bare against those target droids.

"Oh that reminds me Lelouch, I had a chance to look it over…" Kaya told him, absolutely enjoying the panic look in the dark prince's eyes as he thought that over.

"Please tell me you didn't do anything." Lelouch begged, not wanting her crazy mitts anyway near his prized sniper rifle.

"Oh now why wouldn't you want me to tinker a bit?" Kaya asked him, doing a puppy dog look to get him to crack, luckily for him he wasn't cracking.

"Because last time you did, it blew up in my face, literally!" Lelouch yelled, waving his hands above his head to try and convince her otherwise. Sadly she didn't see a problem.

"Slight miscalculation." Kaya waved off.

"Slight miscalculation, I nearly lost my arm!" Lelouch yelled, waving his right arm around to show her he nearly had to get a robotic replacement because of her.

"Keyword: Nearly" Kaya shot back, grinning like a mad-women as she took a spoon full of soup and shoved it into her mouth, eager to get back to her little project soon.

"As much as I enjoy my daughter, making your lives a living hell, the master Kaden wishes to see you in the communication room." A new voice said from the door. They all turned to see a tale red skinned Twi'lek standing at the door, time clearly been good to her as despite being in her early 50s she still looked 35.

"Mother, you back!" Kaya chirped happily as she dashed over to her mom and gave her a big hug, something that was reciprocated.

"I just got back last night, I thought you would have been sleeping but I clearly didn't put much thought into it." Her mother spoke as she did know her daughter loved to tinker.

"You got that right, why sleep when I can be in the lab?" Kaya asked with a big smile on her dirt covered face.

"Lady Mei, welcome back" Nunnally said as she and the rest of their table walked over.

"It's good to be back, the middle Rim is still a war-zone and it wasn't too good for the republic when I left." Mei told them as he led them down the corridor to their destination.

"I hope they pull through." Reyla said as he didn't wish for a sith victory, not after what they did to Coruscant.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it, the Jedi do have a thing for pulling victories from the brink." Nunnally told her as she had heard the reports from their spies and was very impresses with the Jedi leadership, or their lucky steak.

"Indeed, by the way Lady Mei, you said that master Kaden wished to speak to us?" Suzaku asked as they reached an intersection.

"Yes, your find him in the comms room, last I heard he was ordering another shipment of Blaster gas from his supplier." Mei told them as he went the other way to see if she couldn't get her hands on her husband, she needed a sparring partner right now.

"Thank you, bye mom!" Kaya called out as she took off for the comms room, leaving the rest of the group in the dust.

"How does she have that much energy after staying up all night?" Reyla asked, honestly curious.

"Only the force could tell and it doesn't reveal its secrets to us mortals." Lelouch joked, getting a laugh out of everyone before they made their way to the comms room. It didn't take too long to get there as it was only a four minute walk and they found Kaya waiting for them outside the door, clearly she run all the way here. When they entered they were greeted with the usual stuff, officers handling numerous different calls and messages coming and out of the nerve centre of their little operation, Holo-projectors here and there with some on with people discussing important matters. The room didn't have any windows as it was in the centre of the facility to help keep it safe. They saw Master Kaden standing by one of the Holo-projectors, having just finished a call as they walked in.

Master Kaden was a very old man, having stated to he himself was around 278 years old, even if he only looked 70. His once brown hair had all but faded to white with a small moustache and beard on his face, his burning gold eyes having not dimmed since his youth. He had stopped wearing the usual sith black and was wearing a golden robe with white highlights. His lightsaber staff held firmly in his left hand. When they reached him, Lelouch, Nunnally and Suzaku all bent the knee, closed their eyes and lowered their heads. A sign of submission and respect to their master. Reyla and Kaya on the other hand firmly bowed slightly and their left hand to place on their stomach and right arm rigged to their side.

"Ah, you made it." Master Kaden spoke, looking over them to the other workers handling internal affairs.

"Of course master, it is natural for the student to heed the master's summons." Lelouch answered with a low tone and calm voice.

"So it is…tell me…what do you of the current situation on Sol-3?" Kaden asked of them as he looked down at his students with a raised brow.

"Master, the situation has changed somewhat as 2nd Princess Cornelia is locked in combat with the Middle Eastern Federation as the empire hopes to turn the region into Area 18 while Prime Minister Schneizel keeps the European Union from interfering on the diplomatic front. Tensions between the E.U and the Chinese Federation ran high as the Federation is trying to sell the E.U half-baked goods and expecting full price." Suzaku answered, having read the reports the previous week.

"The E.U?" Their master inquired once more, testing knowledge on the current situation.

"Master, the E.U has just elected a new Prime Minsters by the name of Neville Chamberlin who going by our own reports on him and his public stance, does not want to start any conflict with Britannia even though his own cabinet believe it to be the only way to keep themselves safe from an impeding invasion. He is too weak willed to be ally of ours and would likely sell us out the first chance he got. Also reports indicate that the E.U has been using refugees as expandable soldiers as their own people are too cowardly to fight their own battles, a large number of them are people from the conquered countries of: Japan, Libya and Tunisia." Nunnally answered this time, catching on to what he wanted.

"Very good, and the federation?" He nodded before turning his attention to the last of the trio.

"The federation would be a good partner of the empress was actually the one in power, our sources have found that the high eunuchs to be the ones really on power. Out secrets agents have found evidence to suggest that they had their last emperor killed in an assassination and blamed it on the euros. By doing so, they placed the young empress into power which due lack of experience and knowledge, gave them free reign to bleed the federation dry of its riches to fill their own bank accounts and satisfy their own greed. 90% of the population lives in crippling poverty and crimes is rampant. As it stand it would be more logical to approach India for partnership rather than the federation as a whole." Lelouch answered, having done his own research into this beforehand.

"And why do you believe India would a good ally for us on Sol-3?" Master Kaden asked, wanting to hear the reasoning first.

"Our spies have reported that the although the Maharaja is the standard selfish politician who knows nothing of honour and loyalty, the Indian people have been found to be more than willing to fight for independence. My guess is that although the MZI manufactures most of the federation military hardware, they know that the federation would deploy almost all their forces to keep it under their control, even if they did win and became independent, nothing would stop the Britannians from invading them and making the subcontinent another Area under their banner." Lelouch explained, revealing how fragile the federation really was.

"Yes…That would be a good thing for us. Rise my students, you are returning to Sol-3 for your first real mission there." Master Kaden revealed, smirking when he noticed all of them stiffen up at that.

"Is this true master? We going back to begin it all?" Nunnally asked, keeping her joy hidden at being given the chance to return to the planet they once called home for the first time in 7 years.

"Yes young Nunnally, our spies in Area 11 have found that not only is Viceroy Clovis an incompetent leader but he has been working on something. Strangely enough, of all the info we could get our hands on which include the names of key officials and military records, this 'Code-R' of his is a well-guarded secret. We have only captured two people who might have known anything but they both had cyanide pills hidden in their teeth." Master Kaden told them, a frown on his old face as he thought about the importance of such a secret.

"So they killed themselves before we learned anything?" Lelouch asked, having seen this before he knew that some agencies across the galaxy practiced this, forgetting that a secret worth dying for will just make those pursuing it even more determined to find it.

"That is the case at present. All we know is that it might be a project to manufacture a new kind of chemical weapons." He revealed, gaining a shock look from all of them, even Kaya was visible disturbed by this truth.

"You mean…that Clovis may be making…?" Reyla asked, afraid of the answer, luckily Lelouch took her one hand into his and gave it a squeeze.

"Poison gas, but I thought that the manufacturing, selling, distribution and usage of Biological and Chemical weapons had been banned from since the accords signed by the big three back in 1996?" Suzaku answered, poison practically dripping from his tone as he put two and two together.

"And still are, it would explain why he's been being so secret about it, even the Emperor wouldn't violate the international ban, but what I want to know is why. I mean Britannia certainly doesn't need thee stuff." Lelouch added, finding if odd that Britannia would make chemical weapons when they don't really need it, the cost far outweighed the gains here no matter how you looked at it.

"You can find out more when you arrive at Tokyo Settlement, pack a lot since you're gonna be in planter for at least 5 months conducting the operation. Of and Lelouch, pass by the armoury and pick up that sniper your so found of, they finished it a few minutes ago. Also we were able to secretly send in those stealth subs you wanted along with the supplies of Sakuradite, they're docked in the Japanese trench" Master Kaden told them as he left the room, taking that as a sign to leave as well, they went their separate ways to gather their things for the trip.

(Later)

This time it was Nunnally who was the last to make it to the destination, which happened to be the small airstrip outside the base, with a particle shield all around the place and dozens of industrial sized oxygen recyclers all over, as long as you stayed within the field, you could breathe without issue. She had changed out of her robes/armour and was wearing a green and white dress, white stocking and blue flats with her hair styled unto 2 pig tails to better manage it. She made her way over to hanger 4, which acted as the R&D lab since she knew they would all be there.

And she was right.

They were all gathered around a Gage-Class Transport which was being loaded with their supplies for the mission, including 5 of Kaya's new Stalkers but Nunnally could not see much of them as each was covered with a brown drape to protect against dust. Lelouch had changed into a black t-shirt with white vectors designs, a pair of black jeans with a chain sticking out of his pockets, probably his wallet. Along with this he was wearing plain blue sneakers and a black leather jacket. Suzaku was wearing a beige t-shirt with a blue coat, faded white jeans and black shin high boots. (What he wears in Cannon season 1). They were both talking to their love interest, saying goodbye as Earth had never had aliens so them coming along with be too much of a risk. It's the reason that Master Auburna couldn't go to earth, after all, she's a Wookie after all.

"Make sure to stay safe mister, you don't have a good reason to wind up in the infirmary now." Reyla told Lelouch, both still in a loving embrace with each other.

"I'll try my best, after all without you the infirmary doesn't seem to fun anymore." Lelouch replied with a joke, earning him alight smack on the head for his troubles.

"Remember to wear the new face mask I made you, your earth girls don't deserve to see all your scars." Kaya told him as she handed him his new face mask to hide the scars, thanks to Lelouch creating a new program, she was able to create a mask that would perfectly mimic his face after ten years of puberty and growth.

"But you do?" Suzaku asked lightly as he placed the mask in his carry-on.

"Of course, I'm the one who gets to feel you muscles around her as well so if you want another girl…call first, I want in on that three-" Kaya replied, her eyes gaining a lustful tint to them before she was interrupted.

"Okay, please don't finish that sentence. Are we ready to go yet?" Nunnally asked, not wanting _that_ image in her head.

"Yep, the last one was just fastened down, take care of them now, they are the only ones we have and I need combat data for them" kaya told her as she gave Nunnally the briefcase with her pilot suit in it, Lelouch and Suzaku already carrying theirs.

"Take care now, and give them hell back your planet." Kaya told them as they walked over to the entry ramp.

"That's the plan." Lelouch responded as he gave Reyla one last hug before boarding the shuttle, Suzaku and Nunnally following suit. They found their seats and sat down, opting to sit near each other but not next to one another. It didn't take long for the shuttle to get into the air and soon enough they had left the atmosphere of Mars and were on open space.

"How long till we get to earth?" Nunnally asked as she got comfortable in her seat.

"There's no need to rush so we aren't going full speed, I say around 7 hours." Suzaku told her, pulling out his travel pillow and getting ready for the long trip.

"That's sounds right, Ill wake yer when we get there old friend." Lelouch added as he pulled out a book to read to pass the time.

Look out Earth

The Order of the Black Knights were fast coming…to change the world

 **Well that's chapter two guys, I did what I wanted to do and yes I know I didn't reveal just what forms they all mastered but that will come in due time. Yes they turned Mars into a settlement for themselves seeing how the moon has too many droids and satellites watching or monitoring it so they chose a planet which doesn't as the three power blocks have other things on their mind other than space exploration, like killing each other. I know I made them all act differently but you can't expect them to act like cannon when they all went through such a change over the last 10 years so yeah. Also yes, Lelouch is in fact dating and sleeping with an older woman…lucky bastard. I also made them act more like teens as well with all the teasing and roasting going on there.**

 **Another thing you guys must have noticed, the E.U prime minister is Neville Chamberlin, a real life person who was Prime minter for the British in the 1930s and early 1940s till he was replaced with Winston Churchill, Neville was replaced due to the fact he wasn't fit to lead the British against the Axis during the war as he had no real plan or drive to take them on. He was great peace time leader, not so much a wartime leader and we all know the Marilyn Monroe quote:** _ **'If you can't handle me at my worst, you don't deserve me at my best'**_ **. So for the most part, the E.U won't be a big factor in this story till their Churchill comes to power.**

 **Something else I changed as that Sakuradite is in fact found on other planets in the Star wars galaxy and I made up some new ones for Lelouch to gather supplies from. I'll get into them as the story goes so please be patient. They are going to be looking into this Code-R as anyone knows you should know as much about your foes as possible. On the matter on Geass, I don't see Lelouch needing it was although his absolute obedience was powerful, he had Jedi mind trick now and other cool abilities, adding Geass would either be redundant or OP depending on who you ask. By the way here are their heights and age for this story.**

 **Lelouch: 178cm 20 years old**

 **Suzaku: 176cm 19 years old**

 **Nunnally: 160cm 16 years old**

 **Reyla: 181cm 27 years old**

 **Kaya: 177cm 22 years old**

 **Stephen: 192cm 58 years old**

 **Master Kaden: 185cm (Given)**

 **Lady Mei: 183cm 53 years old**

 **Next chapter they will arrive in Tokyo Settlement and begin their operation, it will also feature Clovis, Bartley and other earth bound characters.**


	3. The more they stay the same

**Well this is chapter 3 people, as stated in the last chapter this chapter takes only on Earth and will be for some time. Also in case it was unclear in the last chapter, Nunnally went through numerous surgeries and therapy so she could move around with her legs again, plus she was training in the ways of the force with nothing but support. So yeah, I gave her sight back for this story, although they were accounts of blind force users, I wanted her be able to actually use her eyes.**

 **Chapter 3: The more they stay the same**

 _ **March 27**_ _ **th**_ ** _2020 A.T.B/ 3 629BBY_**

 _ **Unknown Region:**_

 _ **Milky Way Galaxy:**_

 _ **Earth/Sol-3:**_

 _ **Area 11/Japan:**_

 _ **Tokyo Settlement:**_

(Viceroy's Palace)

The Tokyo settlement really was a marvel of engineering. Built to withstand the toughest of earthquakes that Area 11 was known for with ease and tank the largest of tsunamis the sea could throw at them, the Britannian city was purpose built not just to withstand the wrath of nature, but to stand a stark reminder to the elevens of their colonial masters, their betters and their superiors. All this and more while still appearing to be as beautiful as a painting with perfect lawns and well placed trees, lakes, rivers and parks to form a proper green belt to counteract all the steel and concrete.

All this was visible from the government bureau and by extension the penthouse office of one Clovis La Britannia…though it didn't do his mood any good.

Truth be told, Area 11 was always a troubled area to manage for him. Resistance groups dot the countryside and ghettos like bugs and the eleven populace are much divided on how to handle their new situation. The more smart ones, at least by his opinions registered to became honorary Britannians, at least this way their great, great grandchildren would be able to call themselves proper Britannians. The patriotic ones, the dumber ones, chose to oppose his administration any way possible either by downright terrorist activity or just not cooperating unless there was a gun in their faces.

It was only two years in when he wanted to call it quits and return to Pendragon and let someone else deal with the elevens, after all he only came to Area 11 to search for his siblings Lelouch and Nunnally. He, Cornelia, Schneizel and Euphemia refused to believe that the elevens had done them in, but over time they all lost faith that they survived with no leads to their whereabouts. He even checked with the Ashford's. After all, they were his mother supporters and happened to be in Area 11 at the time, taking Nunnally somewhere safe or at least seeing familiar faces would have drove him to seek them out. When he told his siblings of his plan, Schneizel was impressed and a bit ashamed he didn't think of it himself. But alas, even after he had secret agents from the RBI check into it after Reuben told him he didn't know where they were or if they were still among the living, it checked out that the old man wasn't lying. Soon he too had lost faith he would find anything and just a week before he would ask his father to return to the capital, he made an interesting find.

While General Bartley was demonstrating the new Portman submersible Knightmare frames, his security team caught a green haired young lady and a white haired Chinese lad trying to leave the ship they had undoubtedly stored away on. Naturally they tried to arrest them and depot them back to the federation but that boy's mouth earned him a bullet through the heart.

The nerve of some people, saying such off things and calming he could read the minds of the guards.

The woman, maybe his mother tried to shield him from the shot but just ended up being shot as well. When they were disposing of the bodies, the guards that touched the body of the green haired corpse were rendered with a stroke of madness. By the time Clovis knew what was going on, they had been forced to shoot dead 6 of them before they did any damage. To his utter amazement, she awoke and got right back up, even though he had seen her die, the bullet pierce her heart and leave her bleeding on the floor without any medical care. Bartley ordered she be shot before she could more damage to his men and this time she was shot 9 times with bullets hitting her lungs, heart and brain.

But like before she rose again, only it took a few moments longer that time. He demanded she tell him her secret to how she got back up from such wounds but she refused to cooperate no matter he tried. He had her captured and created the Code-R research project in hopes of unlocking her secrets for himself.

Of course, he kept everything on the down low since he knew what he would do to his reputation both among the royal family and the commoners if they knew what he was doing. Immortal witch or no, it never looks good when you not only authorise human experimentation but fund it. So he kept in under lock and key with only himself and General Bartley knowing the truth of the matter.

And now someone is snooping around where he doesn't want them to. It started around three months ago when his agents reported they someone was monitoring his movements and had picked up a discrepancy in them as he would always check on Code-R himself if he could. After he found out, he kept his distance and relied only on reports from it.

Then his people involved in it would disappear, searches of their homes and offices pointed to them being taken suddenly, and within 48hrs of their disappearance, they would all turn up dead. The autopsies he ordered revealed they had broken the cyanide pills in their teeth and poisoned themselves, so he knew they didn't talk at least. This gave him some comfort.

However the fact was that a new player to the Area 11 landscape was looking into him, already he had been getting strange reports from those damn Purebloods on the more anti Britannian resistance groups being found dead or tied up ready for capture, each of the crime scenes spoke of the elevens being attacked by a well-coordinated and armed group as the bullets recovered were high grade, often used by their own special forces and another thing was the killing itself, from what little witnesses testimony they had, whoever attacked them hit them fast, hard and knew when and how to do it, effectively resulting in fire fights that last two to three minutes before it was over, allowing this new group the chance to get away with little trace long before the Knight police and military arrive. After discussing this in length with Margrave Jeremiah and Count Kewell, they came to the conclusion that a new resistance unlike any other had formed and was cleaning house of the more volatile groups that were unknowingly helping his Media (Propaganda) connections paint the elevens as such savages.

This was disconcerting, this meant that this new player knew of the importance of appearance.

"Sir, it's time for you to make your appearance at the Hartfield's party." His assistant said through his desk phone, knocking him out of his thoughts.

"Yes, I'm be down momentarily" Clovis responded as he made his way for the door. He just hoped that this day would be as relaxing as possible for him.

Oh how wrong he was.

(Residential area-Tokyo Settlement)

Meanwhile while Clovis was getting ready for a party, Lelouch, Nunnally and Suzaku were by their safe house doing their own things, although calling it a safe house would be an understatement.

The home was in one the best neighbourhoods in the settlement, giving it easy access to stores and other needs. The property was big for a non-noble household at around 26 350 metres squared. Surrounded by a rod iron gate and had a large yard with trees and rose bushes. There was a brick path that circled a fountain and led to the home's cherry wood front door with an oval, flower frosted glass window in its centre. The home was a three story house; on the outside it was predominately white and had four large Greek columns that lined the porch. The house was big, having 11 bedrooms big enough for three people a piece, 6 bathrooms to help keep the morning lines as short as possible. A lounge with a large wall mounted flat screen and enough seats for 12 people. A private study on the 2nd floor for working in quiet. A dining hall fit for a duke along with a modern Kitchen to prepare meals in and a walk in pantry to store all the supplies needed. The house also had a rather large library filled with books and other texts. Finally there was a Greenhouse out back alongside the pool and a Music Room joining the main house on the side. The estate also had a private gym, swimming pool and dojo for them to keep in shape, Lelouch didn't feel like going back to be the skinny guy again.

"I still can't believe this was what you were up to, brother" Nunnally said as she took a seat on one the chairs in the lounge, catching the last bit of some show before it ended. Lelouch sat on the chair opposite and Suzaku was still in the kitchen preparing himself something to it.

"I knew we would return someday so I brought houses like this one in eight different hotspots that I theorised we would be sent to, no biggie."

"But how did you afford it, it would see off if you tried to ay using out old bank accounts. Someone would notice and tip off father."

"Don't worry your little head about it, I didn't touch that money. I simply imported gold, steel and copper being mined in the middle Rim here and sold it using a whole lot of front companies, middle men and fake IDs and/or names. As far as the government is concerned, this house is owned by Mr Benjamin O Riley. A 35 year old Baron with ties to the movie industry." Lelouch responded, looking up from his computer as he was going over the software and OS of the new stalkers and making sure everything was in order.

"Glad to see your taste hasn't gone down." Suzaku said as he walked in with a bowl of ice cream and sat himself down to watch some old anime.

"There's that but I also made some…upgrades here and there to the place." Lelouch told them with a little grin.

"Such as?" Nunnally asked, eager to hear what measures he put in place.

"There are hidden closed circuit cameras all over the property, smart motion sensors covering the grounds, doors and windows, the doors have special hinges that can't be blown off with regular shotguns and smart locks that can read finger print or voice command alongside emergency blast doors installed in every door way to seal off rooms in case of a break in, all the windows have been replaced with glass bullet resistance to anything under 30-06 Springfield heavy rifle rounds. Most the furniture is bullet resistance up to .300 Blackout" He told them, not understanding the looks of shock and awe on their faces.

"Jesus Lelouch, what are you trying to keep out? The knights of Round!?" Nunnally yelled, that was WAY too much for a safe house.

"Never assume your base won't be found." Lelouch responded, he thought it was modest, after all

He wasn't allowed to install the automated blaster turrets he wanted.

"Anyway…how much money do have to work with? I heard that some of the troops we been recruiting and training over the years were on Tokyo but that's it." Suzaku asked, wanting to move away from his friend's paranoia and talk about something else. Besides Lelouch was smarter than most, it was his idea to secretly recruit people from the Japanese ghettos and train them in specially hidden locations across Japan and China so that they would become a fully functional army unlike most of the rebel groups who had no training to full back on.

"Well for ourselves we have around 35 000 Australians dollars to work with, that's to cover food, clothes etc. for the plan we have a much larger budget of around 640 000 Australian dollars." Lelouch told them as he read the info sheet for the job off his computer.

"That doesn't sound like much, last time I checked-a simple MBT that the JGSDF used to deploy was 300 000 Australian dollars to but on the black market, never mind ammo and fuel." Suzaku remarked as that was certainly more than most of the so-called resistance they taken down had, it was a drop in the bucket of water that was the Britannian war machine.

"I don't think so, last a checked, we're been buying up weapons from the federation and the E.U. for the past three years now. I read the last shipment log, it came in around a month ago so we should have enough for a couple hundred troops. Even so, ammo will soon became a problem." Nunnally answered as she remembered reading the logs before they left.

"What do we have?" Suzaku asked Lelouch as he turned on the TV, Lelouch accessed his files on the matter and quickly found the details on the supplies they had.

"We have around: 2,500 pistols; 2,500 SMGs; 2,000 shotguns; 1,500 assault rifles; 1,300 grenade launchers; 800 sniper rifles; 600 anti-tank missiles or rockets; 300 shoulder fire SAMs; 400 mines and around 250 mortar. We also have enough munition to supply each gun with 12 clips of ammo or in the case of the missiles and rockets, around 6 rockets or missiles each." Lelouch answered him, his eyebrow raised as he didn't thin k they had this much supplies to work with, it seems most of their money will be spent just requiring more ammo for them rather than buying them.

"That must have cost a pretty penny." Nunnally added, surpirised they had all that.

"Yeah, according to this, it cost around 2.5 million pounds to purchase and another 400 000 pounds to store all of them. " Lelouch answered as he read the rest of the report before signing off his computer and placing it on the coffee table. "And that is way I got an appointment for." Lelouch announced as he powered down his laptop and placed it on the table."

"Appointment?" Suzaku asked as Lelouch got up and grabbed his keys off the table before making it to the door while checking that his that his FN57 sidearm was ready and loaded, he was never one to relax.

"Yes, I found this great target, I mean challenger who thinks he can beat be at chess so we are gonna have a match and I bet 500 000 pounds of our money that I could, when I win, I'll be coming back with around 1 000 000 pounds." Lelouch responded, not at all concerned that he was betting most of their cash on his victory.

"When, not if?" Nunnally asked, a bit scared he may just loss that money.

"You know me better than that my dear sister. Well then I'll be off then." He waved off before stepping out of the door and closing it behind him. Leaving his partners to just sit back and watch some old anime they found over the years, what was it its name? Akame ga something.

(Outside)

Lelouch locked the door with both his key and fingerprint to ensure it was secure before he made his way to the garage. Once they he quickly found his black and purple, custom made Zero S electric motorcycle. Thanks to Kaya, the beauty top speed shot up from a measly 95mph/152km/h to an adrenaline pumping 175 mph/281 km/h with the bike having a new sustained speed of around 120mph/193km/h, she had to near completely rework the Engine to produce more power which meant replacing the transmission, brakes and suspension so the bike could handle it. This made the bike 45kg heavier than the regular one along with it needed a battery capacity of 28 kW.h but it now had a range of around 280 miles. He also had placed compartments to hold 4 300g blocks of C4; detonator for the charges; basic medical supplies; flashlight and batteries and three spare clips for his pistol.

He got on the bike, strapped on his purple helmet and started the baby up before exiting the garage and he was off. The drive to the location was simply enough, though he did get into a few red light races on the way there since he couldn't resist the challenge. In the time they had been here, they had eliminated four resistance groups that proved too dangerous to leave alone and allowed Clovis to capture another 6, of course with no evidence pointing anywhere near them to speak of left behind. They had chosen to use earth based rounds as blasters would attract a lot of attention, something they weren't ready for at this point. The only ones who actually seemed like they were doing something was the Blood of the Samurai group, most saw their raids as small but attacking strictly military rail and communication lines, they didn't paint themselves as bad guys and got the job done.

The JLF was another fraction he considered but truthfully he was interested in Tohdoh and his four holy swords alone as the rest of the fraction was too set on their clearly proven outdated military tactics and strategy or just plain incompetent. He also needed to get his hands on the service records of these rebels group's members to he knows what his getting out of them, after all even after years of recruiting and training along with his contacts in the federation and E.U, they only had around 1,400 members.

Sure that was a lot by rebel standards as only the Blood of the Samurai, Reborn wolves of Nagasaki, Hiroshima Warriors and Japanese Liberation Front having more members but he needs his forces to be able to not only take back land from the brits but to repel others….there was always the threat that those fat greedy Eunuchs would try to invade if they stirred up too much trouble for Clovis and as it stands right now he wouldn't be able to stop them since they were known to use human wave tactics till you run out of ammo, even if he did, it would exhaust most of his supplies and leave him open for Britannia to counterattack, he didn't wish to reveal the fact he had ships in space capable of wiping out whole cities through orbital bombardment yet but that may be the only way. So they needed to be smart about this and not cause too much trouble till they were ready.

It didn't him too long to get there, he did leave the house 10 minutes early. So he parked his bike, paid the meter fee and went inside. He didn't really pay attention to the people around him and got to the elevator, one with a TV in it.

" **This is footage if the terrorist bombings that occurred yesterday in Osaka."** A female newscaster reported, showing a short video of a building surrounded by smoke with fires here and there. " **Reports from the secretary have reported fifty-nine casualties so far,** **eight Britannians and fifty-one others were killed in…"**

"Typical, only concerned with the eight _Britannians_ , ignoring the others deaths simple because they weren't. At this I wonder if this planet's worth saving since all most are concerned about is which _part_ of the planet you're born on." Lelouch muttered to himself, ashamed by the crimes and arrogance of his former countrymen. When he got to his floor, he was greeted by a grand, luxurious room that could only belong to a noble (which it did). Directly In front of another TV was two chairs on either side of a single table. The table itself had a chess set and a timer placed on it. His opponent was a luxuriously garbed brown haired man with blue eyes, he sat filing his nails while five smartly dressed bodyguards stood around him, ready to defend their employer. The man he was subbing for was a much older gentlemen that looked to be of Asian descent, Lelouch could see that his 'partner' had made a lot of mistakes as over half if the black pieces were off the board while white only lost three pawns and a rook.

"Oh thank heavens you made it!" the elderly man greeted him with a relieved smile as he got up to shake his hand before moving to the side for him.

"So my opponents really a child?" The noble asked, arrogance and pride flowing off him in waves.

"That is the case but I was expecting someone younger as well." Lelouch shot back with a wry smirk, liking that the noble lost his grin at the jab to his age.

"Watch your mouth boy, it may cost you. Do you have your money or are you just wasting my time?" the noble warned him, his guards shifting around to rush him if he did anymore to upset their boss, not that it would do them any good but he was in a good mood so he decided to humour them.

"Right here…you?" Lelouch confirmed as he revealed that he was carrying a briefcase with him, he placed it down and open if for them see the money neatly packed into it. One of the guards did the same at the behest of his boss, once the money was handled and placed next to the table, he sat down and surveyed the board for a moment.

"Great, this will over in nine minutes." Lelouch said as he looked at his opponent with a little smirk on his face, loving the face the noble was pulling at his words.

"Nine minutes! You only have 20 seconds per move." The noble told him, thinking this kind either didn't know that or was joking.

"More than enough time." Lelouch answered as he picked up the black king piece

"You start with the king?" The noble asked before he started laughing at what he saw as stupidity. Lelouch's only response was to smile like a child who doesn't understand a joke.

'Oh how I'm going to enjoy watching you eat your own words old man.' He thought to himself, waiting for the sweet taste off this clown.

(Meanwhile)

" **This is Alpha-3** " a masculine voice reported just as an aircraft flew higher into the air over a large truck " **Target has entered Delta-14 via Delta-12 at a speed of 28km/h** " the aircraft reported when the truck made a turn into the highway.

" **CCP to all units. Initiating a Code-3 on floors three through five**." The voice continued as the truck went along " **All units take route 88, I want the target intact** "

(Back at the hotel, 25 minutes later)

Lelouch walked away from the noble carrying both brief cases, leaving him starring wordlessly at the board which clearly had white in a checkmate. As soon as the door closed, he got out his phone and called Suzaku. It took a few moments before he picked up though.

" _So how it go? You lose our money and need me to save your ass_?" Suzaku asked after he answered the call, getting Lelouch to roll his eyes at the comment.

" _Oh ha-ha-ha smart-ass. No I didn't loss but got more than I came for_." Lelouch told him as he lifted one of the brief cases to look at it with an eye of satisfaction.

"How much?" Suzaku asked, eager if he was able to earn a 10 000 more or something.

" _Well I have the one million pounds on me now but the poor bastard will make the transaction to deposit another 2 million pounds into out bank account in about ten minutes_." Lelouch told him as he looked out over the settlement since the elevator was mainly glass.

" _How the hell did you get that much, I though the game was for 500 000 pounds!?_ " Suzaku yelled, making him move the phone away from his ear lest he go deaf.

" _Well I beat him the first time in seven minutes, so he challenged me again, this time at double or nothing so he could win back his money. When I beat him again in 6 minutes 30 seconds, he started to loss his cool and I may have egged him on to wager triple or nothing._ " Lelouch them him after he was sure that he wouldn't be yelled at again.

" _And let me guess, you beat him in 6 minutes that time_?" Suzaku told him as he reached the lobby, allowing Lelouch to exit the elevator and stand by the side of the passage to let other people in.

" _Actually I wanted to savour his defeat so I took my time and bested him after 8 minutes so he thought he was winning_." Lelouch answered as he switched his phone to the headphones so that he could carry the cases and still talk.

" _Your one cruel bastard you know that_?" Suzaku told him with a tone they made it seem like he was smirking on the other end.

" _I wouldn't be me if I wasn't old friend. Call you when I get to the bank to confirm that he did transfer our money_." Lelouch told him as he reached the entrance and started walking towards his bike.

" _Yeah, we all know how much you hate being cheated out of you well won money. Talk to you later_." Suzaku replied before they both cut the call. Just as he was walking he heard the comment of those around him, still talking about the news broadcast being displayed on the large screen on the building across the street.

"What are trying to prove by killing innocent people?" a man asked, seemingly angry at the loss of life.

"Those elevens terrify me" a women nearby said, showing signs of shyness and fear at the news.

" **We apologise for the delay, now his Royal Highness Prince Clovis, Third Prince of Britannia will address the nation**." A female automated voice announced as the video was cut and replaced with a stern faced Clovis, standing proud in front of the camera.

" **To all my imperial subjects, including of course the many cooperative elevens who chose to serve the empire of Britannia** " Clovis begun after rising his arms as if he wanted to embrace you, making himself seem more genuine.

(On the truck)

"We not elevens, we Japanese!" one of the occupants snarled, revealing herself to a young female going by the voice.

(With Clovis)

" **Do you not see my pain, my heart was ripped from my chest only to be torn apart, the remnants are filled with rage and sadness!" However, as ruler of Area 11, I will not tolerate terrorism of any kind! Because the battle we fight is a righteous one, a virtuous battle to protect the wellbeing of one and all**." Clovis emphasized by squeezing his royal robes above his heart, not knowing there were three people on planet who could seize his heart and crash it.

(Back by the safe-house)

Back at the house, Suzaku and Nunnally were also watching the broadcast as it cut their usual channels to show this, both were not amused.

"What a load of bull…" Nunnally said, angry and disappointed at the man her elder brother had become.

"Remind me again when invading other countries and enslaving their people became a righteous thing?" Suzaku asked, wanting to head over to the Viceroy's little palace and end him himself but holding back.

(With Lelouch)

" **Now then everyone, I would like to join me in a moment of silence to the eight who died for justice, in the line of duty**." Clovis announced as he bowed his head with his eyes closed.

" **A moment of silence please**." The automated voice asked of the viewers.

'Not a chance in hell viceroy' Lelouch thought to himself as he made his way to his bike and paid the fee before placing both brief cases in the side carry bags, putting on his helmet but he was stopped when someone approached him.

"Well aren't you gonna join in?" A boy around his age with blue hair and grey eyes. He was wearing some kind of school uniform with was mostly black with gold trimming, along with this he was wearing a pair of red driving gloves and a white helmet.

"Aren't you mister…?" Lelouch shot back, probing for a name.

"It's sort of embarrassing and the names Rivalz, Rivalz Cardemonde." The now named Rivalz told him sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.

"Lelouch Lamperouge. And I agree with you…besides spilling tears over those people won't bring back the dead now will it?" Lelouch told him as he got into his bike.

"Dang that's dark buddy." Rivalz commented as he paid the fee for his own bike which happened to be next to his.

"It's all about self-satisfaction, you can't do it. Change the world." Lelouch told him with a simple smile, thinking to himself about how much that wasn't true, if you're willing to spill a whole lot of blood to do it that is.

"Maybe but I got to say, cool bike man. Was is it?" Rivalz asked, eyeing the unique piece of engineering.

"It's a custom Zero S electric cycle." Lelouch told him, rather enjoying the look in Rivalz eye as he did take pride in his bike.

"Wait electric? Why not get a model that runs with Sakuradite? They go faster and further than the electric models" Rivalz asked, since most electric models were plagued with poor top speeds and range due to small batteries.

"You would think that but a friend of mine modified this baby. Now it has a top speed of 281 km/h rather than the standard 152 km/h. besides I don't go that far and it's not like I need a cross country cruiser." Lelouch told him, smiling like a bastard when Rivalz nearly fell over at the reveal.

"281km/h?! My bike clocks out at 210! Man you got to introduce me to this friends of yours if he can do magic like that." Rivalz said as he started to chuckle at the end when he thought about how fast his ride could go supercharged like that.

"She just has a way with mechanics, if you don't mind all the add-ons that is." Lelouch said cryptically, telling him the mechanic was a she but leaving out the part about her not being human.

(With Clovis at the government bureau)

"You were magnificent your highness, one would never guess that you were attending a party while doing that" A young lady said, watching Clovis walk off the stand when the cameras turned off.

"After all the viceroy is the marquee actor of Area 11, I need to change customs quickly" Clovis replied as two servants approached him from the sides and removed his cape.

"My, you're so self-confident" Another lady commented as she enjoyed her wine.

"It's all in the performance, since the media wants a charismatic prince, I give them one." Clovis said as he fixed his cravat and looked over to the side where the head of Hi-TV and his two top people were standing.

"Untrue, Prince Clovis our key purpose in life is to support and assist your reign in any way we can." The clearly overweight head of Hi-TV complemented,

"His reign is a pathetic sham." Diethard said to himself as he read over some notes.

"Y-Your Highness" Bartley said as he run past Diethard to reach the viceroy, nearly tripping over his own two feet more than once.

"Hmm a soldier?" Diethard thought aloud, now interested in what he to say.

"Goodness Bartley, how boorish of you." Clovis said dismissively, clearly not happy with this interruption.

"I beg your pardon your highness, my lord" Bartley apologised before he started whispering something to the prince, since Diethard couldn't hear be began to leave the room.

"Not another appearance for him, hope it's not as dreary…" Diethard said as he really wanted something more to work with. He never knew he would get his wish.

"You Fool!" Clovis yelled, surprising those present as it was rare for the artist turned viceroy to lose his temper.

"The police were informed that its medical equipment, that's all." Bartley assured his prince before he did something he may regret. "If we scramble the army there be a record…" He tried advising as they were trying to keep this on the down low. Sadly Clovis wasn't willing to listen

"Deploy the Royal Guard, the Knightmares as well!" Clovis ordered, not willing to let these two bit terrorist have his cake and eating it too.

(Pureblood Headquarters)

" **Alert 1 Alert 1** " A alarm sounded off in the base, getting everyone into battle stations as knights and pilots made their way to their 5th generation Sunderlands. " **Fourth, seventh and eight rapid reactions companies, as well as the 31** **st** **air assault team immediate scramble**." Among those pilots was one Altgrave Kewell Soresi, Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald and Lieutenant Villetta Nu. " **Special Division nine, standby for deployment** " the announcement ended with most of the Knightmares ready and waiting to move out.

(On the highway)

Lelouch was leisurely driving down the road, having enjoyed his little chat with that Rivalz character. For a guy with such bad luck in the casino, he was a competent mechanic and knew what he was doing seeing how he did self-service on his bike. The two spent ten minutes arguing back and forth on the pros and cons of a complete titanium chassis for a sports car till he remembered he needed to go to the bank. Come to think of it he never ask him which school he was in, he recognised the uniform from somewhere but where?

'Either way, I find out soon enough, just need to compare it to the schools in the settlement to get a match.' Lelouch to himself as he sped up a bit as he took a turn into the right lane, unknowingly blocking the way of a speeding truck. He only noticed when he heard its horn behind him.

"What the hell asshole?!" Lelouch yelled as he swerved out of the way of what would have been a painful experience.

"You idiot, watch where you're going!" The driver yelled, revealing himself to be a male as he turned to avoid killing the motorcyclist.

"Not that way!" The passenger tired telling him as he was turning into a construction site but it was too late as he already made the land change and smashed through the yellow barricade before coming to a stop after crashing into some building supplies.

"What was that guy thinking? He nearly ran me over." Lelouch thought to himself as came to stop in the other side of the road.

" **Control, target has crashed at the abandoned VO building construction site.** " The pursuing aircraft radioed to base, still hovering but now around 100m up.

" **The military will take over, General Bartley's command**!" The commanding officer told him, ordering him to stand down and let them do their jobs

" **Him?** " The aircraft called back, its pilot confused as to why the military would get involved in the theft of medical equipment. It's not that big of a loss, is it?"

(With Bartley at the Government bureau)

' _We have to retrieve it at all costs, that thing. In the wrong hands…_ ' Bartley thought to himself as he made his way through the many corridors on route the G1. Scared out of his mind of the implications such a thing in terrorist hands could do.

(Back on the highway with Lelouch)

He had gotten off his bike at this point and went over to the railing to check on them and saw the accident. He was contemplating what he should do when he heard the voices of the growing crowd of bystanders.

"Hey! Over here." A random man said, pointing to the crash site.

"Whoa, nasty crash." Another added, a teenager this time.

"What happened?" a young woman asked, still carrying her shopping.

"Some sort of accident?" Another said, watching the dust clear from the site. Lelouch also noticed that some of them had taken out their phones and were recording it or taking pictures.

"Probably a drunk driver." Some business man said, not even bothering to look.

"It's always some moron." His companion agreed, voicing her view on what happened.

"Hey, maybe somebody go help." The same teen said while taking out his own phone to take pictures like everyone else. Not doing a thing to help whatsoever.

' _Hmm, all those idiots reduce my faith in Earth more and more by the day_ ' Lelouch thought to himself as he threw his helmet onto his bike seat before jumping over the barricade to help the truck.

"Look, the student rescue team has arrived." Some guy commented, amused by Lelouch's actions.

"Why doesn't somebody call for help, you know?" A lady in the crowd asked, not noticing the stupidity of her own question since she could most likely call for help.

"Hey, you alright in there?" Lelouch asked as he tried to move the T-beam from blocking the driver's door, only to realize that it was too heavy normally, forgoing using his other abilities, he started looking for other ways to get inside.

(In the truck)

"Nagata? Nagata?" The girl asked the driver, shaking to him rose him from his impromptu nap before they get caught.

"Can you hear me? Are you okay?" Lelouch asked, having climb into the top of the truck via a side ladder which led to an open sun light, he was looking for a way to climb in when he felt it.

'I can't believe it, after so long I've found my…' A disembodied voice spoke to him, clearly directly into his head like telepathy, but that was impossible wasn't it? The only way he knew of that could do that was through the force and there weren't any other force sensitive people on Earth bar himself and his fellow students. So how _did_ that happen? He laid a hand down on the roof of the truck, seemingly inspecting it for a latch of some kind or another way of entering.

It was at this moment that a fully conscious Nagata shifted the gears and reversed out of the wreckage, nearly throwing Lelouch into the opening if not for his quick reflexes allowing him to jump off the truck and land with a roll to dispense the force of the landing.

'Okay, there is something or someone on that truck with force or force like abilities. _That's_ at least worth checking out.' Lelouch thought to himself as he ran back to his bike, getting on and going in the opposite direction to throw off any eyes on him. Once he reached a small alleyway, he drove in and parked but didn't get off the bike. He pressed a few buttons before the dashboard was replaced with another screen which had a map of the settlement and a moving dot going along the roads.

'Good thing I put that tracer on the truck. Hmm it looks like its heading for the ghetto-settlement fringe so its most likely heading for the ghettos making the occupants resistance fighters of some kind.' Lelouch thought to himself as remembered when he was 'inspecting the truck, he placed a small tracker and audio bug on it, the bug was grey but the size of a large coin, so chanced are no one will notice it.

'Let's see what my little bug can pick up on the audio side of things.' Lelouch thought to himself as he tuned in his helmet mounted phone to the bug's encrypted frequency.

" **Stop the vehicle! Surrender now and your get a chance to defend yourself in court!** ' A loud voice demanded, presumably with a megaphone. He could also hear faints sounds of a jet engine, maybe those new VTOLs he heard about that have basically replaced regular old bladed choppers?

'That's the military, okay now I'm _really_ interested in what's in that truck.' As he listened in, he could hear what could only be a machine guns firing on the truck but the lack of explosions or sounds associated with driving under fire told him that they were warning shots and that is was one of Britannia new birds. The increase of the jet blast noises told him they was more than one.

" **Give up now or shot to kill!** " the same voice ordered the truck, Lelouch quickly mapped its route into how it planned on getting into the ghetto before riding off, knowing a short-cut to get there and hopefully intercept the truck once it reaches. He was careful to use a different route than the one the truck was on so the VTOLs don't see him, after all he wasn't a protected as he liked on his cycle.

" **Now that do we do? That's the army!** " Another voice asked, seemingly panicking. He could tell that it was the occupant as the quality spoke of the voice having to pass through the roof of the truck, making it a bit unclear but the fact that it was in Japanese was proof enough to where it was originating.

" **Have you forgotten, that's what I'm here for**." Another voice answered, female and young this time going by the bass and tone, also in Japanese. So he now knew they were Japanese since most brits didn't even bother learning the basics of the languages of their conquered people. It also confirmed that they would head to the ghetto first chance they got.

'Okay, they must have entered a tunnel going from the way the air is moving, so they're taking route 23 so they must plan on entering through bypass 45, I can make it there before them.' Lelouch thought to himself as he revved his bike and accelerated to around 180km/h to make it there in time, expertly weaving around the traffic to cut even more time off his route.

" **Can you enter the subway via the Azabu route?** " The girl asked, her companion.

" **Kallen, Lets use it here why not?** " The man asked, gaining Lelouch's interest as he was talking about their cargo like it was a giant proton bomb.

" **Because that would mean a bath blood!** " The girl responded, soundly aghast at the thought, whether it was because of the massive loss of civilian life or because they would be wasting such a weapon was unclear.

" **Target is moving from the settlement towards the ghetto**." The VTOLS reported, he had heard this as he had taken the time to patch himself into their frequencies with a special program of his. At this point he was close enough on a nearby road to see the VTOLs flying overheard.

" **Copy that. Corner them**." Their HQ ordered.

" **Roger**." The VTOL replied, only to shot out of the sky by a projectile attached to a cable, most likely coming from the truck.

" **A slash Harken!** " The other VTOL pilot exclaimed, clearly surprised by this new development.

" **A Knightmare! I repeat, the terrorists have a Knightmare! Looks like an old Glasgow model.** " The third VTOLs described to HQ, giving Lelouch a clearer picture of what was happening over there. He was impressed by their resourcefulness...till he saw another even bigger VTOL flying towards it, this one carrying on if the empire's 5th gen Sunderlands if he wasn't mistaken.

"So…their real deal? Not a bunch of idiots then?" Lelouch muttered to himself as he allowed a smile smirk to grow in his face, clearly intrigued by these freedom fighters.

(With Kallen)

"You fellas know full well what this badass mother can do!" Kallen boasted over an open channel as she moved the Glasgow out of the back of the truck onto the road, skilfully landing with her Landspinner out to not fall over and then jerking the controls forwards, propelling the Glasgow down the road to avoid machine gun fire before she used her slash harken to take out another VTOLs. However from the smoke cloud generated from the explosion, another VTOL appeared, this one carrying a Knightmare of its own.

" **The rest of you back off, I'll take this this**." Jeramiah ordered as he had his VTOL fly lower to the ground to allow to him to deploy.

" **Yes, my lord!** " The smaller VTOL confirmed before it broke out and returned to base.

" **I can only assume you dug that obsolete relic out of some scrap heap. An over the hill Glasgow is no match for a Sunderland!** " Jeremiah gloated as he fired his own slash harken to meet Kallen, knocking it back and allowing himself to safely land on the highway was well, Landspinner deployed so he could keep up the chase.

" **Not to mention a filthy eleven who spurs the compassion of our glorious emperor!** " Jeramiah added as he made his Sunderland crouch a bit to avoid her slash harken and open fire with his standard 45mm anti-armour assault rifle. Blasting off her Glasgow's right hand, Kallen reeling from the attack, cursing the fact she had no long range weapon herself.

" **Kallen, we should both split up!** " Nagata suggested on the radio, struggling to get thee truck to go faster than 40km/h

"But-!" Kallen tried to protest but was cut off when she heard gunfire on the other end before the line cut. Up ahead, Villetta had positioned her Sunderland in front of the truck after scaling a building on the lower floor to surprise her quarry. She opened fire with custom under-barrel 15mm anti-personal machine gun. Blasting holes in the windscreen of the truck and forces the driver to turn left to avoid her.

"Simple minded eleven." Villetta scoffed as he let him have a few moments head start. Meanwhile Kallen was trying to fight out Jeramiah but her left slash harken jammed at that moment.

"No way, it's stuck." Kallen panicked as she had to think of something quick or she'll be dead.

"Second hand junk!" Jeramiah roared as he unfolded his Sunderland's right arm mounted stun tofa and brought up his hand for deliver the final blow. Kallen, fortunately at this moment gave on the limb and ejected the whole thing into Jeramiah's face, giving her enough time to make a quick escape.

"I'll admit, I really like your spirit. However…" Jeramiah complimented as the smoke cleared revealing his Knightmare to be completely undamaged from her desperate gamble.

(With Lelouch)

'So they were forced to take a detour. Due to the bad cell signal in the ghetto, it's gonna be hard to call for help once inside. The truck is taking the old subway line in through, smart move on their part as those tunnels are too small for Knightmares to follow and there weren't any other vehicles present in the chase that can fit. This gives them time to hide but knowing the empire, they properly let them go so they can be lead right back to their command, even if they circle around and lose any pursuers, the military now know that they are based somewhere in the Shinjuku ghetto…been a while since we were nearly killed there. Wonder if my blood still lying around.' Lelouch thought to himself as he finished with that morbid thought as he returned to the place where his life change for the better.

He had parked nearby to where the truck was most likely going to emerge and was waiting in the shadows, although he didn't like it he may have to use the force to stop the thing and get the answers he wants from the driver. In the meantime he wanted to make a call.

(With Suzaku and Nunnally)

After Clovis unwelcomely disrupted their TV watching, the two friends had left for the library to try to catch up on some of the homework their tutors had given them. Even if they could be the most powerful beings in the planet, their master made it _very_ clear they would still receive a proper education. They had been at it for about 30 minutes now before Nunnally got a phone call, knowing of one other person who had her earth number, she picked up without looking at the caller I.D and answered it.

" _Hello Brother, Suzaku says you will be coming home with an easy 3 mill, that true?_ " Nunnally asked, putting her book down to talk to him.

" _Yes dear sister it is. Sadly I wasn't calling to gloat of my superior gambling skills._ " Lelouch responded, purposely keeping his voice low as if he was hiding.

" _Then why would you call, to ask me to make you something for dinner, you know it's your day and there's buts, ifs and maybe about it_." Nunnally told him, not willing to lose her drum practice time because of his laziness.

" _I'm on the edge of the Shinjuku ghetto_." Lelouch told her, causing her to stiffen at the news, flashes of that day shooting through her mind.

"… _hold on, I'll put you on speaker_." Nunnally told him before she set the phone down on the middle of the table before hitting the speaker button so that the curious Suzaku could listen.

" _Go ahead_." Nunnally told him, sitting down now to try and recover herself.

" _As I said, I'm on the edge of Shinjuku ghetto._ " Lelouch repeated so that they both heard, only to be interrupted by Suzaku.

" _Why the hell are you even near there?_ " Suzaku asked, unknowingly moving his hand up to touch his hidden but scared face, Lelouch quickly explained the situation and how whatever was in the truck could use a sort of telepathy which prompted him to investigate the matter and how he wants to help them fight off the military forces.

" _So you want to help them?_ " Suzaku asked, knowing that this could be the first attack they pull off in broad daylight.

" _More like undermine Clovis and kill some imperials but yeah, that sounds about right_." Lelouch replied, checking his firearm in case someone tried to get the jump on him.

" _What do you need from us then?_ " Nunnally asked him, ready and waiting to help.

" _I need you to send over one of the stalkers, Suzaku will have the drive the truck of course but this might be a good time to test them out in actual combat_." Lelouch told them over the line.

" _I see, you dead set on this?_ " Nunnally asked him, standing up and getting ready to leave the room.

" _You know I am_." Lelouch responded, the conviction dripping from his tone and no doubt harden eyes.

"… _Well then, Suzaku will have to get two of them ready then_." Nunnally said as she and Suzaku went to a certain book shelf before pulling out a book, prompting a panel to appear where they put in a password and allowed it to scan their eyes and fingers.

" _Wait, two?_ " Lelouch asked over the line, confused as to why he'll need that many.

" _You honestly think I'm gonna just sit here while you risk your life against a foe that outnumbers you 50-1_?" Nunnally asked him, not needing an answer as she and the brown haired Japanese boy entered into a secret elevator which took them down.

" _You don't need to come here, one is enough_." Lelouch told her, trying to keep her from the battle.

" _Right and two is covering our bases, don't try to talk me out of it or you won't be getting your stalker period_." Nunnally shot back, giving him the ultimatum to his participation in this attack.

" _I'll listen to her, you know who she gets_." Suzaku added, knowing his friend could argue for hours if need be and wishing for this to end soon.

" _Oh fine, but if you damage yours, you're on your own explaining it to Kaya_." Lelouch told them unhappily, before ending the call.

 **And there is chapter 3. As you can see I made some notable changes to the cannon plot line, namely the fact that I gave Kewell a noble title as we know he is from a noble family but it's never revealed what title they have. So I gave him one which was lower than Margrave by three levels according to Germanic noble ranking so it made sense as to why he was Jeremiah's underling and not the other way around. I also gave Lelouch his own sweet bike as unlike cannon, he doesn't have Rivalz to drive him around anymore. The more noticeable change I know most if not all of you caught was the fact he never fell into the truck but did pursue it from a distance as is curious about the nature of the contents, especially after C.C did that whole telepathy thing.**

 **Clovis will attack the Ghetto in the next chapter and there will be much more deviation from the source material there since instead of Suzaku its Nunnally whose going to fight and on his side. I did this was this is rarely done in stories and it adds to her not being the little innocent invalid girl she was in cannon and rather being a strong independent person who makes her own decisions whether you approve or not. I added some context as to why Clovis became viceroy as it pretty much accepted that he become Viceroy in the hopes of finding his lost siblings as he, Schneizel and Cornelia were old enough to understand that Lelouch would need to be convinced to return after the whole banishment thing and to that end, he actually called up the Ashford's as there were his mother's biggest supporters before her death and are a likely place he would go to, the fact that he confirmed with his closet siblings that they weren't there will stop Cornelia (if a decide to kill Clovis as he may not even bother showing up himself due to fear or arrogance) from even checking as she knows it would be pointless.**

 **The matter of the Euphemia/Suzaku paring is also something I have to think of as Euphie isn't really displayed to have attraction to anyone else besides Lelouch (They were kids who didn't know what they were talking about or what love outside family was. Plus they are only** _ **half**_ **siblings) and Suzaku who already has a love interest that I don't plan on killing since he doesn't deserve that, most characters in this show don't but there are some who do need some grief in their lives (I'm looking at you Ohgi, you married the woman that shot you and left you for dead, that not the wisest of decisions). And I know I'm been hinting on these so called stalkers but they will be seen in the next chapter and will demonstrate just why Kaya has such faith in them.**

 **BTW, the exchange rate of this will be explained as the story goes but as of now, the Britannian pound is worth 1.5 Australian dollars.**


	4. Lost Innocence: Crying Child

**Well my faithful readers, here is chapter 4 of Code Geass: Knights of Black. As you can imagine I have re-watched episode 2 and 2 for this chapter and there will more changes, in the grand scheme of things they may prove small but well, you all know the ripple effect. The small fact that Suzaku isn't fighting alone means that flow of the battle will be greatly different than cannon. Also Lelouch and Nunnally won't got out there lightsabers brandished and cut up from Knightmares. Why?**

 **I recently finished watching Star Wars: Rebels (great series) and for the first two or three episodes, Kanin didn't use his Jedi training or most of his force abilities. He didn't for two reasons. The first being that he didn't need to and he had other skills and gear to fall back on, his blaster for example. The second was that he didn't want to flaunt the fact he was force sensitive to the empire as they would send better trained and equipped or even Inquisitors to capture or kill him if he did. So he only used it sparingly at first till he couldn't hide the fact anymore. Lelouch, Nunnally and Suzaku are going to follow a similar style of thinking as they don't want the Emperor or other world powers sending agents to fight/capture/kill them and don't want to show their hand so soon so for those he really want to see that, I ask that you be patient.**

 **Also with regards to the Lancelot, I finally picked out a suitable pilot for it alongside some back-up to really give Lelouch a challenge as this won't be interesting to read if he didn't have a worthy opponent to challenge him. One last thing before you begin the chapter: this chapter along with all that follow it will be at least 6K words as each episode as a lot of content to go through as well as the changes I've made to the plot.**

 **Chapter 3: Lost Innocence: Crying Child**

 **March 27th 2020 A.T.B/ 3 629BBY**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11/Japan:**

 **Shinjuku Ghetto:**

(With Lelouch)

As Lelouch hung up, he angrily put his phone away. He didn't want Nunnally anywhere the fighting but she insisted, it wasn't that he thought her weak-far from it really but he didn't need his sister knowing what it was like to kill, in the seven years they were gone she hadn't killed a single being, normally given jobs suck as spy or getaway driver but it seems she wanted her wings today and wasn't giving a damn if he didn't want her too just yet. As he quickly hid his bike he thought to himself all the things that could go wrong and planned for it.

Just as he really started up his own contingency machine he called his frontal lobe, he heard an incoming. Ducking behind a pillar he eyed the same truck from earlier

(Earlier with Bartley)

"Ah-ha." A man with silvery lavender hair wearing a lab coat said as he leaned closer to stare at general Bartley.

"What are you doing?" Bartley asked, confused by this odd man's behaviour.

"Looking at a man who blundered, am I right?" The man replied as he leaned back to stand straight. Three main battle tanks rolling on by in the background

"Why you…" Bartley growled, moving his hand to his sidearm to silence that nuisance.

"You really screwed this one up. Terrorists came along and stole whatever it was you and Prince Clovis were secretly working on, retrieving is simple but you want to sweep up all of their compatriots in addition. Let the terrorists go and you can find your hide-out too, congratulations your reasoning was spot on" The silver haired man said before he turned to face a purpled haired woman standing behind him wearing an orange and green uniform.

"It was nothing, I just thought it was strange." The women stuttered out, clearly not used to being on the spot like that.

"Okay that's enough, what is it the special core wants out of this?" Bartley asked impatiently, wishing for this conversation to end while a massive purple vehicle moved by in the background, casting a large shadow on the trio.

"I'm merely saying I'll like to assist with the clean-up." The silver haired man offered with a business like smile.

"To assist?" Not understanding why he would want work when he didn't need to do it.

"Correct, because its data I want." The silver haired man revealed.

"Excuse me but what in the world have they just stolen anyway?" The purple haired assistant asked as it was very unusual for so many troops to gather for medical equipment, they could just make more within a day or two.

"Chemical weapons…in other words, poison gas." Bartley told them. Narrowing his eyes as he thought of the container that the terrorist no doubt still had.

(Present time, Shinjuku Ghetto)

" **The terrorists are hiding in the subway system. Your mission is to locate the weapon that they've stolen. Investigate the old subway system that runs through the eleven residential district in the Shinjuku Ghetto. Report in the moment you spot them**." A Britannian officer barked over the airwaves as 18 troops transport VTOLs flew over the area, scaring the residents and make some wonder what the military wanted with them. A man held a brown haired girl closes to him as the sounds of jet engines grew louder.

" **Recovery of the target will be handled us, the Royal guard. You people bear the honorary title of Britannians now but you were born elevens, therefore the stench of these monkey ought to be a familiar one. If you want to earn the right to carry arms. Then show some results! Here is your opportunity to show your loyalty to Britannia**." The officer ordered as he was revealed to be a steel eyed, blue haired man wearing a red officer's uniform. He was standing in a much bigger white and orange VTOLs as the smaller ones dropped off dozens of masked troops into the ghetto, some of the denizens running for cover as the troops run by.

" **Yes, My Lord!** " The soldiers in the ground replied, all answering as one.

(With Nagata)

Driving in the darkness of the tunnel, Nagata struggled to stay awake as he had taken a hit in the shoulder from that last attack and the wound was bleeding heavily. He was so out of it, he never saw the deep tear in the ground in front of him till he run into it, jamming the two front wheels into the hole.

"Dammit, the tire's stuck…" Nagata cursed as flip the switch to cut the engines since he wasn't going anywhere. He fell on his side as he reached for another switch with his one good arm.

"Please Ohgi…find me…" Nagata pleaded to himself as he flicked the switch, opening the side doors for the truck.

(With Lelouch)

'Must be a pretty bad accident, he's not moving. Wait I see movement.' Lelouch thought to himself as observed the tuck for a moment before the side of it opened up, he couldn't see all that well in the light but his helmet had built in cameras for that. Once turned on the night-vision with the power on low, he was able to make out the shape of the container.

'Well it certainly looks like a poison gas capsule and we did suspect Clovis was illegally manufacturing some. Lelouch himself was curious as to what type he was making. Maybe it was a revolutionary new type that ate away at certain metals, or targeted humans only to leave environment relatively clean for both the sake of nature and to help cover it up. Either way he wanted a sample of the stuff. However before he moved in, his helmet picked up a feint sounds of footsteps.

"404 has sighted the target." A voice called out, presumably talking through a radio to his superiors.

"Just great, there just had to be a soldier in my way today, didn't they?" Lelouch whispered to himself as he stayed hidden and watched the soldier walk up to the truck, slowly inspecting it. Before the soldier could reach the driver seat, the capsule started to move, before the thing begun opening up.

'Shit, if that's any kind of gas, the people of Shinjuku was finished!' Lelouch thought to himself as prepared to intervene to control the gas flow before it spread. The soldier was of same though as he dived to the side but instead of gas, to both their surprise and awe, the contents was revealed not be a gas of any kind but rather green haired women wearing a restraint jacket which included something to cover the month as well. She collapsed as soon as she stood.

"That's not poison gas…" Lelouch mumbled to himself as he took in the sights and wondered what was so damn special about her that Clovis would hide it, from what he was able to dig up on the man, he was a known flirt and he remembered Cornelia yelling at him when Clovis let it slip he wasn't a virgin a couple days before his mother's death (Not knowing that Schneizel already gave him the talk about the birds and the bees). It can't be an affair as there would be no need to keep it secret since his sperm donor of a father gets away with having 106 wives, surely the third prince could get away with three or four girlfriends.

"What is that solider doing...Is…is he helping her." Lelouch said to himself as he watched the masked trooper carry her off the truck before gently laying her down to remove the restraints holding her limbs together.

(With Kallen)

"In all the confusion, I left it in the coat." Kallen said into the radio, having hidden underground and using the above uncovered manhole as a means for her Knightmare to let out an antennae.

" **Its okay, the Glasgow circuits are usable. So were we right?** " Her comrade said over the radio, sounding older than her but not by much.

"Think so. I bet its poison gas like intelligence said." Kallen said as she took a drink from her water bottle.

" **And Nagata?** " the radio went off, the voice having a hint of concern.

"I don't know, I think he made it underground." Kallen sad sadly, not being able the condition of her friend who may be dead or captured by now.

(Back with Lelouch)

Lelouch was tempted to come out of his hiding spot and help the fellow till he heard some more footsteps and was almost blinded when more people showed up and lit up the area with some heavy duty lights. He quickly turned off his night-vision and waited her his gaze to improve, while this was happening the soldiers were talking. "Stinking monkey. Being an honorary Britannian will not excuse you!" the captain of the royal guard yelled, clearly not happy with the situation.

"But sir, I was told this was poison gas!" the soldier first to arrive replied, trying to downplay the situation before it got out of hand.

"How dare you question orders, numbers like you don't have suck rights?" The captain yelled before he pulled out his sidearm and shot the poor fool point blank in the chest. The deafening ringing of the shot still bouncing off the walls even after he collapsed into the floor. Lelouch never jumped out and massacred them but thought of the mission first. Reaching out with the force, he made the ceiling above the royal guardsmen start to give, giving the poor fools just enough to time to jump back before the roof caved in, separating them from the truck, giving him his chance.

He quickly run over to it and noticed both the driver and lady were in no condition to move on their own. So he quickly took the bond woman and run over to his bike, leaning her against it. "Stay here, I have to get the other guy." He told her and waited for her to nod her head in apparent reply. Afterwards he grabbed a one of the block of C4 along with the detonator off his bike and rushed back to the truck, slightly on edge as he could hear the men on the other side climbing the debris. 'No time for formalities.' He thought to himself before he used the force to rip the door off its hinges before tossing the charge into the dashboard. He quickly grabbed the man and threw his good arm over his shoulders and started getting him back to his bike. Just as he turned the corner, he triggered the charge, causing the truck exploded since it had around 40 litres of fuel in the tank, killing two guardsmen via shrapnel as they got to the top of the debris.

(With Batley and Clovis)

General Bartley and Viceroy Clovis were entering the Shinjuku ghetto from the safety of a moving G1 command base. The G1 was traveling with around 60 Sunderlands; 40 tanks; 50 APCs; 30 attack VTOLs and around 500 ground troops. Inside the land ship, riding along with them, were five of Clovis' best men to help supervise what they wished was a recovery everyone bar Clovis was standing over the main tactical display. At this very moment the royal guard in the field had just finished explaining the situation to them along with the news of their two casualties, Bartley was not happy.

"They got away? And you call yourselves the Royal Guard!" Bartley yelled at the man over the radio, his posture showing a lot of anger and stress.

" **F-Forgive me my lord, the blast was mainly directed upwards but the deb-!** " The Captain tried to explain himself but was cut off from even trying

"Why the hell do you think I only told you people about this?" Bartley fired at them, the answer not needed as they all knew of the dangerous nature of the cargo.

" **We-We'll continue the investigation**." The captain replied before hanging up, no doubt to carry out his missions orders.

"The plan has moved forward to the next phase." Clovis said from his throne, looking to all the world bored and disinvested in the current crisis.

"Bu-but you highness…" Bartley asked, having a feint idea of what was on the prince's mind and even though the people were numbers, he didn't think _that_ was necessary. The ghetto had a population of 200 000 of them for God's sake!

"If knowledge of her gets out, I'll be disinherited. Tell them back home we're carrying out a planned urban renewal here. As Clovis, third prince of the empire I command you: Destroy Shinjuku Ghetto, leave no-one alive!" Clovis ordered as he got up from his throne and swung his arm to the side in emphasis.

As soon as the order was given, Sunderland launched out of the G1 ready to carry out genocide, all the while the attack VTOLS flew in to start the show while infantry and armoured units followed close behind. On one part of the ghetto, a pureblood Knightmare, distinguished by its red shoulders burst through a wall and open fire on a group of civilians, tearing them to shreds with its weapon meant to destroy other Knightmares. Similar scenes to this happening across the ghettos and only going in number and brutality.

"W-why are they doing this!?" An elderly man asked with fear and anger in his tone as he watched attack VTOLS flew by firing at fleeing citizens for no reason whatsoever.

"Dear, let's go." His wife said to him as she gripped what little processions they had and made her to the door, her husband following. They were met with bullets as the door was kicked down by two soldiers before they shot them full of holes.

"Okay, let's sweep the next floor." One shooter said to his partner, not even flinching after killing an old married couple in cold blood merely because he was told. Goes to show you how cruel they were or how submissive to their 'beloved' prince they were. At that same moment a tank neat the G1 opened fire and shot a high explosive round into the ghetto artillery style. Next to it a Sunderland did the same but with a standard 120mm recoilless gun instead

" **The enemy is garbage that could never hope to become even honorary Britannians, wipe out every single last one of them**." Bartley encouraged over the airwaves, keeping the momentum up for his men as they gun down innocent men, women and children alike.

"Naturally." Jeramiah said to himself as he eyed the ruined building collapsed due to explosive shells impacting with them.

" **Supervisor Jeremiah, General Bartley requests that you take command of the…** " An officer relayed to him in the radio but Jerimiah wasn't having any of it.

"Bartley has staff officers, I haven't had this much fun on the front lines in ages!" Jeremiah answered as he took aim at a crowd of fleeing Japanese and opened fire with armour piercing rounds.

While this was going on, Clovis looked at the tactical map from his throne with a smirk, pleased with the destruction his forces were causing.

(Meanwhile underground with Lelouch)

As this happening above ground, Lelouch was tending to Nagata's wounds, the man had fallen unconscious from the blood loss and pain of being shot but he would live…so a plus. Lelouch wasn't in the dark on the situation either as every now and then the tunnel would shake due to bombs going off or shells impacting nearby. He was really wishing he just killed those royal guard and been done with it as no doubt Clovis ordered this when they reported back without…her.

Speaking of.

"Alright, just what in the hell are you lady, no way that arrogant cunt of a prince is doing this to hide whatever fetishes he has that you may reveal. All these people…are they truly nothing to you Clovis." Lelouch asked her before being adsorbed into his own little world. Just as he got finished applying the gaze to the wound and started wrapping it up the best he could, he felt a disturbance in the force. He looked down the only clear path which happened to be to his left before he made out a truck making its way to him. He gripped his pistols and prepped himself for a fight but luckily that was not to be as the truck stopped a 6 metres away before both Nunnally and Suzaku came out, both running towards him.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Nunnally asked as he started helping him treat the poor man while Suzaku helped the bound girl to her feet. Lelouch noticed that although Suzaku was a wearing civvies, Nunnally was wearing a pink and white pilots' suit bar the helmet (The same type Celestial being used in Gundam 00 season 1).

"My best guess is he took a shot from a LMG or assault rifle, the bullet a pulled out looked to match that claim." Lelouch told them as he held up the plastic bag containing the bullet. He and Nunnally started to carry Nagata back to the truck as they didn't want to just leave him to die.

"Where the truck, we lost its single and were forced to track you bike directly?" Suzaku asked, following behind the two as he was carrying the girl bridal style when he noticed her having trouble walking on her own.

"I blew it up, no point leaving it there for the brits to get back and investigate." Lelouch told them as he and Nunnally placed the man in the back on one of the two beds present, along the middle of the truck were two Knightmare like machines shrouded in darkness.

"But what about the cargo?" Nunnally asked, fearing the gas escape and was adding even more chaos to the equation up top.

"That's the thing, she was the cargo. Look I don't know what the heel is happening but I do know that bastard of a prince is committing genocide right now so let's get our heads in the game, shall we?" Lelouch said as he pointed to the girl before he grew a bit frustrated,]. They both nodded and Nunnally handed him a suit of his own which from the colour scheme was purple and gold. He quickly stripped down to his underwear and started changing into it, all the while explaining the situation to them. Suzaku mentioned that brought 23 drones with them to act as their eyes in the sky which Lelouch commended him for as they will make things much easier. Once he was dressed in his suit with his helmet in hand, Suzaku placed the girl in the other bed before helping Lelouch place the bike in the back as well.

"Good luck, remember I'll be your eagle eyes from here, the drones will be released as soon as you get topside." Suzaku told him while giving his shoulder a squeeze, Suzaku got back into the driver's seat before flipping a switch which allowed the side walls of the truck to fall down like ramps, allowing the stalkers to be seen clearly.

The things were big, standing well over 4m. The machine was laying on their stomachs with their eight legs with three on each side and two slightly bulkier legs in front close to the body, giving the beast and Spider like look. The legs themselves looked strong and powerful but elegant in nature with two dart like protrusions near the bottom of each one, they stuck out as they were black and not white like the rest of the legs. The machines had two different colour as the one of the left side of the truck was purple with black legs while the other was pink and white legs. The hatches themselves were open, showing that the cockpit layout was very different to a Knightmares. To the sides of the cockpit, two missile turrets were visible alongside 60mm grenade launchers, the key difference being on the right side above the grenade launcher was a heavy 40mm mini gun and on the left side below the grenade launcher was a strange looking cannon. On the front of the machines was a machine gun with a barrel length of around 45cm. On closer inspection, the armour was revealed to be similar in nature to that of an Abrams MBT, giving it better armour than a Sunderland, that's for sure. Behind the cockpit was what looked like vertical launch tubes for missiles. For optical sight, it had a camera-like sphere on the front of it which looked like he could have like a human head, giving excellent field of vision. Finally the heads of these beast were the same colour design was their respective units except the face as a bony white with a six holes where the main camera's could be seen with the bottom part looking like a sets of jaws, adding the fear factor of the machine.

Lelouch and Nunnally boarded their respective units with Lelouch jumping into the black one while Nunnally got into the white one. As he powered it up and the Hatch closed like that of a jet fighter's, the machines stood up, adding another two metres, making them tower over Sunderlands by almost 2 metres. Inside the dark cockpit (The Hatch want glass but armour plated as well) it was dark till the system came alive, he looked over the screens and saw everything was operational with power levels at 98% and weapons primed and ready, as the machine powered on, the six camera's came alive with a malevolent red light which looked more like a glare. Once this was done, he placed the helmet one before he lead Nunnally down a path he suspected lead to the surface.

(Back at the G1)

"Not there?" The odd man from before asked his assistant, standing outside a trailer like vehicle with the G1 being in the background.

"It looks like he gone to the front lines." His assistant asked, now at a loss.

"Even though we brought the Lancelot here?" He asked again, not believing all that work getting here and now they're having nothing to show for it.

"Now what do we do?" His assistant asked, since they didn't have a pilot at the moment.

"We steamrolled our way in here but now we don't a devicer to use it." He man added sadly as he help up a strange looking white and gold UBS drive.

(Back with Lelouch)

At this point, Lelouch and Nunnally had reached an entrance to the surface, Lelouch got out of his Stalker and slowly went up the stairs to see if the cost was clear or if they would have to fight their way out.

"Stay quit Spider-2, wait here while I check up top." Lelouch told her as she stayed in her machine, the drones Suzaku sent silently hovering behind her, he called her the call signs they had discussed earlier to hide you they are, since they weren't dumb enough to use their real names on radio since anyone with the same frequency would hear. As he crawled up the stairs, pistol drawn with safety off. He heard the sound of a submachine gun firing before he looked over and saw a Japanese man in a brown business suit fall down with bullet holes in his back, must have been trying to run when they found him.

"Report." The captain from earlier ordered the shooter, walking into the warehouse now that all the Japanese were dead, only seven present as 2 were already dead.

"We found only elevens here sir." The guard reported, while he back was turned Lelouch noticed that they hadn't seen him yet.

"You're sure if it, that exit comes out here?" The captain asked, sounding like this was getting on his nerves since as far as Lelouch, there were around 5 exit from old japan and 3 new ones created by explosions, so this couldn't have been the first one they checked.

"Yes sir, it matches up with our map of the old city." The same man reported back. Lelouch was aiming his pistol into the back of the one looking away when he heard the cry of a young child. He nearly panicked when he saw one of the other guards moving to shoot where the sound was coming but quickly calmed himself. He moved him aim to the would-be child killer and fire off two shoots. Both hitting the chest.

 **Bang! Bang!**

"Wilson!" one of the guard yelled, after the man dropped dead. The other springing into action and quickly moving for cover.

"Dammit a shooter! Find them!" The captain roared as he pulled out his own pistol. There wasn't a sound before another guard made the mistake to lift his head over the old barricade. Lelouch fired again, this time hitting the poor bastard in the eye and out the back of the head. This caused two of the remaining guards to fire in the direction he was in. he let them wasted their own ammo before he reached into his suits' chest pocket and pulled out a grenade. He twisted the lid for a couple seconds before he tossed in at them. The grenade landing near three of them.

"Grenade!" one of the yelled before the then revealed flash bang went off, blinding them. Lelouch used this chance to move up from the stairwell to behind a pillar and gave him a visual on one of the guards who looked like he was radioing in for help. 'Can't have that now, can I' Lelouch thought to himself before he put three bullets into him, two in the chest and another going through the throat. When he heard the sound of a rifle using up the rounds in its clip, he pooped out of cover and shot three more guys before being forced back behind lest he be killed.

"Where the hell it this guy!" The captain yelled as Lelouch had moved to different cover before they could get the jump on him. Sadly before he knew it, he had a bullet hole in his right thigh left hand, forcing him to drop his pistol. The other two didn't share his fate as one was shot in the heart and the other felt a presence behind him before his neck was snapped. The captain fall onto his backside as he took in the helmeted appearance of his attacker. The colours of his pilot suit looking both regal and intimidating to him with suck little light entering the warehouse, when he tried to stand the masked man pointed his pistol at him.

"None of that my good sir, I have some questions and I want answers for them." Lelouch told him, his voice altered by the helmet's built in scrambler.

"Good to hell you bastard!" The captain shot back, not willing to turn traitor to this tow bit terrorist.

"Nope, already been to Mustafar and that was a wrong answer." Lelouch quipped much to the guard's confusion on the name but before he could even voice it, he was shot in the left shin. He screamed out in pain as the clutched at the limb with his one good hand.

"That was strike one, I'll you time to think about what you done while I check on something." Lelouch told him before he walked off to where the civilians had been cut down. When he got there the sight sickened him, all these innocent people dead because of the whims of some prince. He swore he would make Clovis pay but he had other priorities at present. Like counselling a crying child as they tried to wounded family member to get back up. As sad as it was, Lelouch had become an expert on injured and battlefield wounds in his short life and from his POV, he could see that the bullets hit his right lung, stomach and pancreas, there was nothing he could do for the dying man. Going by the facial features and age of the deceased, he would say father. The girl didn't look very old, maybe 6 or 7 years so she was mostly likely born just before the fall of Japan on in the ghettos. 'So she doesn't even have memories of what life was like before all this, such a tragedy.' Lelouch thought to himself as he made his way over to here. As he did he took in the fact she had shoulder-length pink hair with bangs reaching down from the side of her temple stretching outwards. She had a mole under her left eye and was wearing a dirty white headband on her head. She was wearing a white jacket, a hot pink dress top and a light blue skirt, black socks and shoes

"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy you have to get up, we have to go! Mommy's waiting for us, please Daddy wake up!" The little yelled, crying tears of desperation as she tried to keep her father to said but he was too heavy for her.

"Daddy's okay, I'm alright sweetheart…" The dying man told her, even staring death in the face he could bring himself to smile at her. That till he noticed Lelouch walking towards them.

"Go and hide…so no-one can find you." He told her, not knowing what this mysterious man was here for but not trusting his daughter with him, good instincts for a parent.

"Rest easy sir, I haven't come here to bring harm to you or your daughter." Lelouch told him having picked up the slight change in the man's demeanour as he looked at him, the girl although scared by the situation and his suit didn't leave her place by her father's side, she was a brave one.

"How can I trust you…?" The man asked, talking becoming a challenge for him. Lelouch thought about for a moment before he removed his helmet and pulled down the half mask to show off his Britannian features

"Because I know the pain of losing a parent right in front of me. Please allow me to protect her where you can no longer." Lelouch told him, his eyes allowing the man to see the truth of his words and how he is scared by this. The dying man also recognised him, if only by his purple eyes and hair, he remembered the report the Britannians aired seven years ago.

"I…know…you. You're that…prince…they said was…killed here seven…years ago…" The man gasped, recognising the black hair and purple eyes anywhere, the pieces falling together at what this meant. Lelouch despite the state of affairs cracked a wry smirk.

"Trust me, the RAF tried to finish the job the OSI couldn't sir but as you can see…I still draw breath." Lelouch told him as he knelt down alongside the girl, kneeling before a man that loved and cherish his daughter so much he now lay dying after protecting her from a firing squad.

"…Ha…Ha…who would…thought I would…meet the fabled…commoner prince…on my death bed no less." The man joked, wheezing with each breath as the blood started flowing into his windpipe, forcing him to cough some of it out, staining Lelouch's suit with his blood, not that he minded it.

"NO Daddy! You're gonna be fine, just hold on alright?" The girl yelled, pushing Lelouch out of the way as she tried to keep him awake.

"I…don't….think so honey….my boy…will you…swear to protect her…guide her…teach her….love her in my place?" He said, he turned his attention to the exiled prince with eyes, although fading-showed as much emotion as they could, pleading for him to take the pledge.

"I swear this on my life sir." Lelouch said firmly as he took the girl into his arms as she struggled to get out of his grip and return to her father, who gave him a bloody smile of gratitude before turning his warm gaze to her.

"Good…I'm so…happy that my sweet little…girl will…be looked after…in my….stead…I can rest….knowing she…will live…" He said before he breathed his last, his eyes losing all their light and becoming dull, the daughter couldn't process all this and started thrashing around even more pleading for him to let go, to do something, to bring him back but he held on all the same, not saying a word as he himself cried at the cruelness of life.

"…Daddy?...Daddy?…No…NO!" The girl screamed as she turned and buried her head into the young man's chest, not caring she was getting her father's blood on her. Lelouch simply knelt there returning the hug, letting her fell how much he cares through the simple interaction.

"I want to be with you daddy! I want to be with you forever!" She cried as she gripped his uniform with all her might, wanting to have her wish eve if she knew it to be impossible.

"Let it out little one, let it all out. Crying is the first step to recovery." He told her, having had those same words told to him by the maids of the Aries Villa in the aftermath of his mother's death. He had repeated these words to himself over and over during that time and cried till he couldn't cry anymore. He had repeated those same words to Nunnally when she woke up from her medically induced coma and realized it wasn't a nightmare but their new reality. After around five minutes, he put his helmet back and before lifted in traumatised girl into his arms and returned to the site of his fire fight only to see that captain he beaten earlier being held at gun point by Nunnally, looks like she got tired of waiting.

"Spider-2, could you please take…?"Lelouch begun only to realize he didn't know her name, luckily for him the child in his arms noticed as well.

"Alice…My name is Alice Maresato…" Alice told him, exhausted and depressed over the day's events. Lelouch nodded to her before facing his

"Yes, could you please take Alice here as far away from the fighting as possible?" Lelouch asked his sister, noticing from her posture she was not in the best of moods.

"How much as she seen?" Nunnally asked with a touch of concern in her tone, even if her voice just as scrambled as his due to the scrambler.

"More than any child should ever witness." Lelouch told her as he handed the now sleeping girl over to her before turning his attention to the defeated man at his feet. Nunnally quickly walked back into the tunnel and placed Alice in the seat of her Knightmare. Meanwhile Lelouch was…questioning his suspect.

"Like I told that bitch, I not telling you anything!" The captain roared, not willing to betray his prince even at the cost of his life, or so it seemed.

"Is that right?" Lelouch asked him, his tone having dropped a few decibels, sounding more like a growl of a mythical beast than a man. "I care little for your stupid thoughts on the matter or your views, you WILL tell her what I want to know." Lelouch finished as stood in front of the downed man, looking down on him with an eye of disgust and fury.

"Or want, you gonna shot me again?" The captain asked, preparing for the shot, only to watch confused as Lelouch put his gun away before reaching out to him with the arm and moving it upwards. To his utter shock and fear, he was gripped by the neck by an invisible hand and picked up off the floor till he was dangling a couple inches off it. Lelouch had used the force to pick him up and was slowly choking him.

"No you poor excuse for a living being, I don't need to shoot you…after all…"Lelouch started as his other hand started to spark with black force lighting, scaring the man shitless as in that moment he didn't see a man.

He saw a great black dragon where a man once stood, paralysing him in fear and terror.

"There are _far_ more _painful_ things in this life. Now, shall we begin?" Lelouch asked as he started electrocuting the poor bastard. His screams lost in the oceans of wails and yells of his master's massacre.

 **I gave the ghetto a population count so high since when I searched Shinjuku in real like it had a population of 377 566 according to a survey submitted on the 1** **st** **of May 2015, so that is why as you can see why the population is much lower than the survey counts as this was after a major war where the Britannian would attack civilian cities as we all saw in episode 1 montage of the brief but brutal war, so the population must have dropped due to deaths, people joining resistance groups in other ghettos or simply moving away. This was also done to highlight how little Clovis cared for them as he thought he would disinherited, not killed or even criminally charged for human experimentation or 'illegal manufacturing of chemical weapons', he was greedy and didn't want to use the privileges that allowed him to feed that greed, that's all. I gave him black lighting as purple was taken and red it too chaotic a colour for him.**

 **The Interior of the Stalkers resembles that of a Gundam in Gundam 00 to go along with the pilot suits. The hatches on the other hand are similar to a jet fighter but rather than be a see through substance like plexi glass or plastic, it's completely armoured to add to pilot safety with the inner layer the pilot looks lime is one big screen which with the help of numerous sensors and camera, give the user a clear view on things.**

 **Another thing I notice that no-one ever changes is that fact he hears a child crying and whether he can or not, he never does anything for them other than let them get shot. I took it as an opportunity to show he does care for the people as he came to realize in season 2 episode when he realized his revolution wasn't just Nunnally's happiness anymore but for the sake of everyone's happiness and if you noticed where I got the names and appearance for Alice, good for you. If not, don't worry I'll reveal that in the next chapter. Chapter 5 will cover more of the fighting as hopefully he get to encounter Kallen.**

 **Here are the stats for the Stalkers by the way along:**

 **Sino Tarantula**

 **Technical Specifications**

 **Model Number: AV-M05**

 **Overall Height: 6.34m**

 **Gross Weight: 9.47 Metric Tons**

 **Manufacturer: Atlas R.O.A.D.S Institute**

 **Operators: Atlas**

 **AMW (Armoured Mechanised Walker) Generation: 5th**

 **Developed From: Glasgow and Sith Droid tech**

 **Developed Into: Classified**

 **Variants: Classified**

 **Power source: Classified**

 **Fuel: Sakuradite**

 **Equipment's**

 **Standard:**

 **Cloaking Shield**

 **Advanced Factsphere sensor system**

 **P.E.C.A.A A.I**

 **EMP Pulse system**

 **Internal Heat dampener system**

 **Tank level Particle Shield generator**

 **Smooth ball propulsion System**

 **F.L.O.A.T Pack(Not equipped yet)**

 **Ejection block**

 **16 x Slash Harkens**

 **Armaments**

 **Fixed:**

 **1 x Anti-Personal/Technical machine gun**

 **2 x Multi-purpose Grenade Launcher**

 **2 x Missile turrets**

 **1 x Anti-Knightmare Tri barrelled Mini-gun**

 **1x Dual Bullseye Energy cannons**

 **1 x Twin Anti-Armour Blaster cannon**

 **2 x Smart Missile Launcher turrets**

 **Optional:**

 **EMP Grenade launcher**

 **Chaff/smoke dispenser**

 **VARIS cannon(Not available)**

 **Combat leg mounted Vibro blades**

 **Known Pilots/Devicers:**

 **Lelouch Lamperouge**

 **Nunnally Lamperouge**


	5. Opening Salvo: Battle in Shinjuku

**Here we are, chapter 5. Last chapter included the debut of the stalkers and I hope you guys like them as were designed to partly scare your enemies as a lot of people have Arachnophobia(fear of spiders) so seeing a much larger, metal version armed to the teeth speeding towards you will scare most shitless. As you saving Nagata, he will serve as his liaison to the group as he heard Kallen's name but at this time, he doesn't go to Ashford so it won't do him any good plus saving his life and then going on to help his fellow resistance fighters fight back and kill Clovis will make him more trusting of him than you would think. Making it easier for him to manage the group as a whole and effectively communicate with them. As for the identity of young Alice, I get her design from High School of the Dead since she was adorable, the dog they names Zero might came along eventually since Arthur might not be in this story as he was found by Suzaku and Euphemia, who by this point, won't meet each other like that since Suzaku would need to be by the bureau to catch her, someone else will do the catching I assure you(I'm not cruel enough to still make her jump when it would break a leg at the very least) and see Lelouch as more of a dog/wolf person(he has odd taste like a certain blonde prime minister he knows). Now this chapter will also introduce the mysterious soldier from the accident as a character and we get to see the stalkers in action against some Sunderlands.**

 **Villetta will also play a smaller role in this as in cannon, she remembered the uniform he was wearing which started down her path of finding him. Now he wearing a pilot suit with a mask so she won't have any leads other than confirming he was in Shinjuku, good that will do. By the way, Stalkers and Tarantula are the same thing, Tarantula is just the model name. The smart missiles are stored in a third pod located behind the cockpit and above the main power plant. These are missiles that can be programmed to perform certain tasks as his other ones are just for ground targets like armoured vehicles or Knightmares.**

 **Chapter 3: Opening Salvo: Battle in Shinjuku**

 **March 27** **th** **2020 A.T.B/ 3 629BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11/Japan:**

 **Shinjuku Ghetto:**

(With Lelouch)

Lelouch came down the stairs about ten minutes after Nunnally to find her standing by her stalker. He had just finished his questioning of the good captain but accidently killed him before he got all his answers. All he knew now was that Clovis did in fact order the ghetto liquidated to cover up this whole, that the mysterious girl is named or rather call herself C.C, that she was an apparently immortal and that Clovis wanted that for himself and he was able to acquire some passwords and access codes for the military and government servers. 'Guess we know what the 'R' in Code-R stands for now, Revival' Lelouch thought to himself as he made his way over.

"Where's Alice?" Lelouch asked when he didn't see her.

"Don't worry, she sleeping in my Knightmare with the audio pick-up off, wouldn't do her any good to hear you extract information from that poor man." Nunnally told him, disapproving his methods even if she understood the circumstance.

"Good, Listen Nunnally when I make contact with the rebels, I need you to lead the people to safety" Lelouch told her as he made his way to her and stood in front of her.

"But who will defend you?" Nunnally asked, scared for his life, especially after watching that little girl loss her father made her remember her own deceased mother.

"I can fight my own battles, Suzaku may be the better pilot but I ain't no novice either. Nunnally the reason we are helping them is too ensure as many people get out alive as possible, it won't matter for shit if we win and parade Clovis' head on a pike if most of the people are dead." I need you to help the evacuation sister." Lelouch told her in a tone that brokered no discussion as he placed his hands on her shoulders to get her to see the point of the operation. Nunnally wasn't happy about it but she knew and wanted to save the people before they all ended up dead.

"Fine, but if you get killed don't think I won't bring you back and beat you to death again!" Nunnally told him firmly with a fire in her eye he was sure his mother would be proud of, but it wouldn't do if he let her have the last word.

"Yes Madame short stuff." He responded before he run for his Knightmare and closed the hatch before he powered it one and left, leaving his sister cursing his name in bemusement at his antics. She climbed aboard her machine and made her way back to Suzaku to drop off her first person. As the both left the drones which had been silently following them, went out the stairwell and into the open air.

A few minutes passed before a Sunderland crashed through the entrance of the warehouse. Its Factsphere opened up and scanned the place only to come up with dead elevens along with a whole of the royal guard. Inside the Sunderland, Villetta was shocked by the deaths of the Royal Guard, she was ordered to find them as their last transmission had them in a firefight with an unknown attacker. She had been given the order to find and assist them, but it appears she was too late. She surveyed the bodies before calling it in, not point stalking about it.

(With Bartley)

"Are you sure about this?" Bartley asked, having just heard Villetta report of what she found.

" **Yes my lord, all dead, I confirmed they had no heat signature so they must have perished some time ago, probably the same time as the elevens in the warehouse."** Villetta confirmed over the radio, stiff in the warehouse.

"What could you gather from the scene Lieutenant? And I want your honest opinion." Barley asked, wanting a picture of what went down and how his best men ended up dead.

" **My lord, it seems like they were one maybe two attackers. They must of stuck to the shadows and used misdirection as some of the bodies were found near a spent flash band cartridge, once I dismounted from my Knightmare and examined it, I found it to be a nine banger**." Villetta told them, having taken pictures of the scene when she got there and just sent them to the G1, allowing them to see the sight for themselves.

"That's troubling sir, aren't nine bangers only available to our special forces?" One of the staff officers asked the one next to him, worried about how terrorist got their hands on such equipment.

"They are, meaning whoever killed them had access to armouries few other do. You highness, could this be…?" The other confirmed as he starred down at the image with a puzzled and concerned look at the implications of this.

"It's a definite possibility General, the royal guard weren't amateurs but any means so whoever took them out wasn't either. Lieutenant Nu." Clovis suddenly spoke up, surprising them as he had been rather quiet since giving his order.

" **Yes you highness, how may I serve?** " Villetta eagerly asked, wanting to make a good impression on someone who can make your life a dream or a nightmare depending on how much he liked you.

"Stay where you are until a recovery team can be despatched to your location, I want their bodies brought back here in the best condition possible." Clovis ordered, wishing to see the autopsy results for himself to confirm something.

" **Yes your Highness!** " Villetta responded before she cut the line and begun her task.

'Whoever has been poking around Code-R is here it seems. But from the look of things they may have her right now. I need to finish this operation and quickly find her before they vanished back into the shadows' Clovis thought to himself as that was not a situation he would want, no he'll have to finish this quickly.

(With the oddball)

'So are we having a bad day?" The silvered haired man asked, clearly getting into the personal space of the sleeping boy. The noise however did wake him up. The white haired youth was surprised to be an alive at the moment.

"Looks like you missed a chance to go to heaven private Kanazawa." The silvernette went on, making a quick joke the situation as he does.

"Wait, where am I?" the boy asked, the last thing he remembered as finding the gas to have been a lie to cover up some girl before being shot by his superior who didn't like him knowing that.

"Haa, we're still in the Shinjuku ghetto." The man explained when he saw the confused look in the boy eye.

"With Prince Clovis nearby, this is probably the safest place anywhere." His assistant added as she didn't want him feeling like the terrorist could get the jump on him.

"What the latest on the situation?" Private Kanazawa asked, wanting to know how much the situation had deteriorated in the face of that unexpected truth.

"It looks like the poison gas was released, massive eleven causalities have been reported." The sliver haired man clarified, sounding like he didn't care if not for the pained look in his eyes that showed he was still human…under his all his tendencies and asocial behaviour patterns.

"They haven't caught the perpetrators yet." His assistant stated as she was sadden by such events which lead to so many people dying.

"Is that right?" Private Kanazawa said, thinking to how there wasn't any gas at all! What could be responsible for all those….of no it couldn't be, why one girl be so important he would wipe out the ghetto. He must get word of this back to his lady, she needs to put a stop to this.

"Private Rai Kanazawa, how much experience to you have in Knightmare piloting?" the silvered haired man asked, gaining him a surprised look as the lad raised his head to look at him and saw that same smile.

"But, but there's no way eleven would be made a knight." Rai told them, having read the rulebook enough times to know that. There were few exceptions to it over the years with the most common being a Knight of Round authorising it.

"You don't need to be a knight to be a pilot and besides, I don't care. My name is Lloyd Asplund and this here is my assistant and lab partner, Miss Cecile Croomy. We are currently working on the world's first 7th Generation Knightmare for the Camelot research team. So I'll ask again, do you have experience in piloting a Knightmare frame?" The newly identified Lloyd said as he held up the same USB key fro earlier. Rai thought about for a minute before he remembered his lady telling him about Camelot. She wanted a Knightmare from them but the Prime minister said no, if he could get his hands on one, she'll no doubt be impressed.

"Yes, yes I have around 40 hours-worth of simulation time with a Sunderland." Rai answered, sad to admit he had so little time but it was hard for even honorary Britannian like him to even get 30 hours on those things. He was lead outside of the medical truck before being taken to the back of another truck, this one clearly larger than the others. In the back was a Knightmare like shape under a tarp, he couldn't see much other than white like horn out the top where he presumed the head was.

"Congratulation, the only of its kind awaits you, once you take the controls of this big beauty everything will change. You and your world." Lloyd told him, filled with joy that his prized work would get some field time after all.

"Whether you want it to or not." Cecile added, hoping the lad will be able to take the changes.

(With Kallen)

"Those damn Britannians!" Kallen yelled with tears in her eyes as she fired her only remaining slash harken into the space between the barrel and the turret of a tank, crippling it and allowing the people it was shooting to get away.

" **Kallen! Can the Glasgow still move!?** " Ohgi called over the radio, desperate to know about his forces and how many were still standing.

" **Don't worry Ohgi! It's all right, I'll decoy them. Get the people out of here! The only ones that will be captured as those of us in the resistance!** " Kallen answered over Ohgi old bulky radio set, one of those you need to actually have a back pack to carry around. Ohgi and another were pinned down where they were with the second guy firing RPGs whenever he had a target.

"I know but we're trapped. They got us completely surrounded!" Ohgi yelled right back as the second man managed to shoot down an attack VTOL making its way to them.

(Meanwhile, with Rivalz)

A world away from the fighting, sat the prestigious Ashford University, founded and managed by the noble house, Ashford. Once allies to Lady Marianne, with her death they lost everything so they came to Area 11 to escape the court politics, one of the first things the house head, Lord Reuben Ashford did was build a school. One where all student from different walks of life were welcome, whether they be noble or numbers. This place was like a bubble for all the cruelness and pain of the world didn't get to, the place that one Rivalz Cardemonde returned to over a half-hour late from his 'milk' ran.

"Oh look who decided to show up today." Milly stated as Rivalz sheepishly walked into the council meeting room.

"Sorry I'm late guys, something came up." Rivalz said with a small apologetic smile as he walked towards the table, only to halt when Shirley stood up looking something fierce, Cleary she _wasn't_ happy with him, not happy at all.

"You should be sorry! You said you're be back from your lunch break half hour ago, it's bad enough Kallen misses school and meetings since she's ill but not you to. Where were you?" Shirley scolded.

"I know, I know but I have a good reason, I swear." Rivalz told them as he raised his hands to try and placate them before Shirley hit him or something.

"Alright them, let's hear it." Milly ordered playfully, ready and waiting for whatever tale Rivalz may tell to get himself out of this pinch.

"Well on the way back, I bumped into this guy you see, we started talking and turns out he knows his stuff with motorcycles, was riding this sweet electric bike he had supped to go twice as fast-?" Rivalz started before he started going on about mechanics only Nina could understand.

"Rivalz." Shirley said, getting him out of his gear talk to finish the story.

"Oh sorry anyway he got wrapped up our little gear head talk and before I knew it, 20 minutes had gone by." Rivalz finished as she scratched the back of his head in embarrassment for his lateness.

"Did you get his name?" Shirley asked.

"Yeah, I did, he name was Lelouch Lamperouge I think, prez you alright?" Rivalz told them, surprised when Milly face shifted from her usual Cheshire cat grin to a shocked one before becoming one of someone seeing something that wasn't here, maybe a memory.

"Rivalz, you're sure that was his name?" Milly asked him, with a rarely seen serious expression as she fished for answers.

"Of course, as sure as I am that he black hair, why you know him?" Rivalz asked, slightly jealous she was so invested in this guy, he was interesting too dammit!

"I…think so, but it has been a few years since we last spoke." Milly told them, leaving out the part about him being a prince and exiled.

"Really, he didn't mention it, but them again…he didn't bring you guys up." Rivalz told them as he sat down at his seat and started helping with the paperwork.

"Do you have a way of contacting him?" Milly asked, wishing to call to see if she was right about this.

"Oh my God! I totally forgot to ask him!" Rivalz yelled, furious he forgot such a crucial part as asking for a number, what were the odds of bumping into the guy again.

"Pity." Milly said with a shrug, but it was obvious that she was sadden by this.

"Hold on, I think I know where he might be this Saturday." Rivalz shouted suddenly, not liking to see his not so secret crush sad and luckily remembering a crucial detail to fix that.

"Where would he be?" Shirley asked, interested in meeting this mysterious person.

"Well during out little talk, he mentioned that he'll be at the Tokyo cup Finals on Saturday, the race if being held by the old Tokyo F1 Race truck. He mention he had been in the Tokyo league since the single's qualifier. Winner gets a cash prize of 6 000 pounds and goes one to Race in the Kanto circuit for 60 000 pounds first place reward." Rivalz told her since he was interested in heading there himself to support his new buddy.

"Well then, I know what the student council is doing Saturday!" Milly declared with a wide smile. Earning some groans from her council members.

"I don't know madam President…" Nina said, not having a good history with crowds and a race track was sure to be filled with them.

"Come on Nina, just think about all the machines raging, the burning tyres, the hot boys…and girls. I bet we ca get Kallen to come to if we really hope." Milly tempted, knowing Nina did like bikes, nit as much as Rivalz but this so called super electric is bound to have caught her attention. That and throwing in the fact they were guaranteed hot girlfriends, pick crew members and the occasional rider was sure to get the girls gears turning.

"We're not getting out of this, are we?" Shirley asked, already knowing the answer as she huffed in exhaustion to this.

"Nope! My word is law and my word is you all better getting you race day clothes ready, now if you excuse me, I'll have to step out." Milly chirped as she stepped out of the meeting room, she walked a few feet away from the door before her cheerful face fell, showing a side she didn't like others seeing.

The grieving little girl.

She like many of Lelouch and Nunnally's childhood friends was heartbroken to hear of his death, sure she teased Lelouch since she was taller and a year older but she cared him and Nunnally like family. Cornelia even made the effort to visit with Euphie in the hopes they could find closure with each other after the news of their passing was announced. They didn't have an official funeral in fear of angering the Emperor but they did hold small service for them, just herself, her grandparents, Euphie and Nelly. Even after all these years she would still make them a card and gift for them for their birthdays and she would, without fail leave the little jewellery and trinkets by their respective gravestones in her family's private rooftop garden, even if she would never be able to see that honest happiness at the thoughtful gesture, to her she didn't care, they was far too young to pass on and join their deceased mother in heaven. But now she had news he may still be alive, in the Tokyo Settlement no less

"Could it really be you Lelouch? After all these years?" Milly said to herself, letting hope take seed in her heart as she thought that his survival meant that Nunnally may be alive as well. She may get to see than again!

'Please be alive Lelouch, even if I get to see just one more time, that'll be enough.' Milly thought to herself as she made her way to the rest room, filled with a hope of seeing her lost friends again.

(With Lelouch)

Having just destroyed an APC from a distance, Lelouch was moving around the area killing or destroying his targets without them ever knowing what hit them. He had so far taken out 6 APCs and 3 Tanks. So far the Stalker was performing quite well against armoured units but he had yet to come across a Knightmare yet.

"They need to keep a lid on this getting out, so Clovis calling in reinforcements in out. But from what the drones can see, he came prepared. Even with this new model, taking on all those forces would be suicide. I need to make contact with those rebels, good thing a snatched that fellow's radio, should be simply enough to get the right frequency now." Lelouch said to himself as he hid in an old parking complex, looking at the three different pop-up screens showing him what the drones were seeing. From what he could see, Clovis had more than 30 Sunderlands, 36 or so tanks left, a couple dozen APCs in action; around 20 attack VTOLs and more than three companies of foot soldiers.

As he looked over the video feeds, he noticed a VTOL blow up around 600m away from him. He caught the slash harken disappearing behind a building hinting that a Knightmare took it out. He knew the rebels only had one that could do that.

'Looks like you're gonna do more than piss off Clovis today rebels…' Lelouch thought to himself as he went to work getting the right frequency needed to talk to them.

(With Kallen)

Meanwhile with Kallen, she had just taken down the very same VTOL Lelouch had seen go down and was retracting her slash harken when two Pureblood marked Sunderlands appeared around the corner behind her.

"Shit!" Kallen swore as the slash harken returned to her just in time.

"It's out Glasgow friend." Jeramiah called out before taking aim and firing, although missing his targets by a couple inches and hitting the wall as Kallen as sped off. As she took the corner to avoid being in a straight line with them, she noticed with dread how little power she had left.

"Just 30 minutes left." Kallen muttered, scared out her mind at the fact she was about to die.

" **The west entrance."** A voice said over the radio, speaking perfect Japanese if not with a slight accent she couldn't place.

" **Use the tracks to move to the west Entrance.** " The voice continued over the radio, talking when she didn't respond.

"Who's this? How you do know this code?" Kallen barked over her comas she didn't recognise the voice, not in the mood for games.

" **That doesn't matter now does it? You wanna win? Then you're have to trust me.** " Lelouch went, his voice staying cool and collected in the face of hers.

"To win?" Kallen whispered, having never conceived such a thing. She was just trying to lower the death toll and get out alive. The thought of _winning_ seemed impossible…but at the same time, being offered a chance not matter how small. Kallen made the turn and jumped into the tracks speeding along as fast as she could.

"Okay what I'm supposed to do now?" Kallen asked as she kept up her speed, knowing it was eating through her remaining energy much faster now. Jeramiah and his partner slowly but surely catching up behind her.

"You pathetic eleven, if you simply ran away this hunt doesn't have much to offer in the way of sport." Jeramiah boasted arrogantly, wanting more from this. Kallen noticed this and also noticed the train coming right for her, clearly not stopping.

Shame that was exactly was he was going to get.

" **Since you trusted me you're gonna win. Jump in that that and enjoy the show.** " Lelouch told her as the train got closer and closer.

"Got yeah!" Kallen answered as she jumped into the first car before leaping off to the one behind it, leaving a large dent in the roof of the first car. Jeramiah on the other hand simply held out his hand and held his ground, trying to slow down the train

"You think you can get through that way hmm?" Jeramiah asked as he managed to stop the train in its tracks. He did think it was smart to use it to buy time for an escape but he wouldn't give up that easy.

" **If that's your plan then…you, go after the Glasgow**." Jeramiah ordered the Knightmare next to him.

" **Yes my lord**." The grunt complied and jump up to get into the train but when he was in the air, 2 missiles struck his machine, one hitting the head and the other smashing into the body. Both exploded and took out the Knightmare before the pilot could think about ejecting. The blast shocked Jeramiah who never saw the Glasgow fire and shocked Kallen since she never fired a shot.

He traced the lingering smoke trail to the building opposite him where he could see a large section of wall had collapsed, giving way to a space big enough for a Knightmare to hide in, once he found it he opened fire on the hole. He was in for a shock when a dark object jumped out and landed on the track behind him.

"What in the hell is that?" Jerimiah asked himself as he took in the appearance of the stalker, nearly floored by the design of such of machine and wondering how a pilot could move such a thing. However his rage at losing a comrade overshadowed his curiosity and he took aim at it once more.

"You son of a-"Jeramiah fumed as he opened fire, it proved for nought as the 45mm armour piercing rounds harmlessly struck the stalker's armour but didn't penetrate, heck all it did was mess up the paint. Before Jerimiah could pick up his wits and plan another form of attack. Lelouch decided to stop playing and returned fire from his grenade launcher, destroying the Sunderland's leg and damaging the other's Landspinner. Jeramiah knew when to call it quits and even though it hurt his pride, he ejected away when he saw the Glasgow coming around to finish him off. His cockpit blasted away and deployed the parachute somewhere away from far from his smoking wreck.

"Thanks for the save but what the hell is that?" Kallen asked, facing the strange spider Knightmare but receiving no reply.

"Kallen! What the hell was with that radio message?" Ohgi asked as he, Minami, Tamaki and Inoue ran up to her before laying eyes on the stalker, instantly aiming their rifles at it.

"Forget that, what is that?" Tamaki yelled, not comfortable with the giant metal spider staring them down.

"He contacted you too." Kallen asked, wanting to draw the conversation away before they provoke her saviour, she had already seen it tank 45mm rounds, no way small arms like rifles were gonna do any better.

"Sure did and Yoshida group should be here soon." Ohgi answered, he would have said more but the stalker beat him to it.

" **Are you the one in charge?** " Lelouch asked over his speakers so that they heard.

"Y-yeah I am." Ohgi responded, noticeable intimidated by the black eight legged walker.

" **I present to you the cargo in that train, they'll be your tools for victory.** " Lelouch told them as he used on his front legs to point to the train. Kallen got off the train and went to one of the doors, using her machine's immense strength, she tore it open and couldn't believe her eyes.

The car had 3 factory fresh Sunderlands. Soon the others did the same and pried open the doors of the cars, only to be met with similar sights as some cars had rifles, ammo, explosive charges, grenade launchers, Light machine guns and even shoulder fired missiles.

"There's more in here!" Tamaki called out from the far end, eyeing the three machines.

"Here to!" Ohgi called out as he found some grenade launchers with their ammo.

"Amazing, maybe we should give this guy a chance!" Sugiyama called out as he took out some rifles and dumped them on the floor, replacing his own with a new one.

" **Now that you all know my generous side, you need you see my wrathful one**." Lelouch called out, gaining their attention at his odds wording, when they turn they were greeted with the stalker eyeing them with both missile pods open

Missiles targeted at them.

"What do you mean?" Ohgi asked, fearing he may bite the dust in a rather painful way today.

'Holy shit, that's gonna rip them to shreds.' Kallen thought to herself as she stood by the side, ready to take the blast and hope that some of them made it out alive.

" **I have a question for you, what was your plans for the poison gas you stole? I want to know since Clovis is going through so much trouble to recapture it or destroy along with you**." Lelouch asked, his finger on the trigger to waste them with couple anti-tank missiles if he doesn't like their answer.

"W-we wanted to reveal what he was doing to the world, at the very least get it away from him!" Inoue answered for the group, everyone nodding their heads in agreement. They watched the stalker and waited for a reply.

"… **.I see**." Lelouch stated and after another tense few seconds, he disarmed his missiles and closed the pods. Letting them all breathe out a sign of relief.

" **Apologies for the threat, but make no mistake, I don't tolerate one sides massacres or suck weapons. I see that you are all good people at heart. That pride in that** " Lelouch said over his speakers, not wanting them to think he was or his rock or inconsiderate.

"Sure, whatever you say." Ohgi said for the whole group as they weren't in the business of killing innocent people.

" **From what I know, they should be around 21 Sunderlands in there along with some shoulder fire missiles and assault rifles**." Lelouch said as he used his sensors to scan the train beforehand and had used the security code he got from the royal guardsmen to access the government servers and get his hands on the manuscript for the train's contents.

"All this? But how?" Kallen asked herself, having never laid eyes on such a weapons cache.

" **Woman in the Glasgow?** " Lelouch asked over the radio, making her jump at his sudden question.

"Y-yes?" Kallen replied, now not wanting to anger the man on the other line.

" **Stay where you are, your unit gonna be bait for these imperials. How much power you have left?** " Lelouch instructed her as he read the marching orders Clovis sent to all his troops along with monitoring their movements through the drones and the IFFs signals he was getting through the access code he stole.

"Understood, and I have about 15 minutes worth." Kallen answered back, looking over her readings to make sure she was accurate.

" **Have your energy filler replaced then, can't have you losing power mid battle**." Lelouch told her before he turned his machine to look at the rest of them.

" **If you want to use them to win, then follow my orders to the letter**." Lelouch told them with the tone that leaked conviction and certainty, something they needed right now. " **Listen up, you'll be divided into different parts, codenames and given assigned points you need to get to. The woman in the Glasgow will be called Q1 for this op. the seven of you on board Sunderlands will be B1 through 21. Those with the RPGs will be K1 to K9. The ones using regular rifles are R1 to R17, lastly those with grenade launchers will be called P1 to P11. I myself will be called Spider-1, if you happen to see another machine like my own, dint fire for that is Spider-2 and she's be tasked with clearly civilians. The 12 of you who didn't get assigned a weapon are to find and assist her with this, you will find her near the old private hospital. Any questions?** " Lelouch told the, over the speaker. When he got none he ordered them to move out with their tasks.

(With the G1)

"The terrorists are mixed along with the eleven populace and are mounting a minor resistance us but they pose little threat to our vastly superior army." Batley reported as he read the progress of the genocidal extermination to his prince who sat upon his throne.

"We know that, moving on." Clovis said, not interested in that.

"Understood your Highness, the gas capsule will be-"Bartley started but was cut off by Clovis.

"What the public thinks." He said firmly, not wanting his little project to get out no matter the reason.

"Yes, we'll keep searching for her." Bartley assured him, having already thought of which will do the best job finding her without asking too many questions.

"Either way, I want her captured dead or alive." Clovis stated as he twirled his hair in boredom and slight irritation.

(With the rebel fighters)

"Hey, you certain about this whole thing? They all had their IFFs removed, what if this a trap." Tamaki asked Ohgi from the ground as Ohgi was currently checking over his Sunderland's OS.

" **The other side has total advantage in this war. They don't need to set any traps**." Ohgi told him, understanding his friends concern but also knowing that is was downright foolish to waste 21 good Sunderland, it's not like the empire has an infinite number of them.

"Alright people let's move. Get to your assigned points." Ohgi told them as he started up the Sunderland.

" **B1 can you move? It operates basically the same way to what's you're used to**." Lelouch asked over the radio, having moved to a different spot himself.

" **Can't you tell who you are? At least your name**." Inoue and the rest ask over their own radios.

" **And let anyone listening here it too? I don't think so. Anyway if Q1 is on schedule, 2 enemy Sunderlands will reach you in 23 seconds. Shoot them through the wall**." Lelouch shot them down as he didn't want them to know his name till he knew she could trust them not to talk about it.

"Arg, his out of his mind." Tamaki stated.

" **Everyone double check your weapons**." Ohgi seconded as he picked up his Sunderland's rifle and made sure that the 45 round magazine was full.

'What! Are you serious?" Tamaki asked, nit believing Ohgi would buy what he thought to be crap. While Ohgi got them into their Knightmares, Kallen was moving away from the group till she came out the tunnel she was in, in plain sight of a Brit attack VTOL flying overhead.

(The G1)

"Enemy spotted at point F31." One of the controllers reported.

"A feint is it, how pedestrian." Clovis drawled, lounging leisurely on his throne while he watched the elevens desperately fight back.

"Tell Lazlo Squad to go straight in, have Yugan and Valerie strike from the rear!" Barley ordered.

(With Ohgi)

"3…2…1…Fire!" Ohgi counted down before giving the word to let loose. He and two other Sunderlands firing their 45mm rounds through a wall and to their surprise and joy, there were two Sunderlands on the other side which were being torn apart by their barrage.

"W-what!" One the pilots yelped as he machines was destroyed before he could even find his bearing, his partner meeting the same fate.

(The G1)

"Sir Yugan and Sir Valerie both lost." The same controller reported.

"Hm? An ambush?" Clovis wondered aloud as she surprised to hear that.

(With Lelouch)

'An ID single can be a double edged sword, besides if the rebels follow my orders then this should be over quickly.' Lelouch thought to himself as he watched the feed of the two units blowing up, taking their pilots with them. " **B1, B4, B7 seven move a hundred metres to the right and fire your slash harkens towards 3 'clock.** " He ordered.

(With Ohgi's group)

"You heard him, do what the voice say!" Ohgi added, wanting to win this as soon as possible.

"Damn, what else does he want us to do?" Tamaki wondered himself as he got into his seat.

"B5, ready?" Lelouch asked over his radio.

"Quit calling me that." Tamaki shot back as he got in and activated his Knightmare. While this was happening, another purist Sunderland was ambushed and taken down by Ohgi's group.

"Urg, There using the same-!" The pilot cried as his unit was destroyed.

(The G1)

"The enemy it moving towards G28." Another controller reported as he read the stats.

"Send Lazlo squad-I mean Galbe squad!" Barley ordered, starting to sweat from the wave of 'lost' reports and losses.

"This means…terrorists have our military weaponry?"

(With Kallen)

At that moment, a lone Sunderland was on a building watching for terrorist movement till the pilot noticed a slash harken appear behind it and latched into the building. Before the pilot could do anything other than turn to meet this new threat, they found themselves punched in the face of hard, it triggered the auto-eject, sending them flying away from what they could see a red one armed Glasgow.

(G1)

"Sir Galbe has ejected, his unit been lost!" A controller reported, being overwhelmed by the amount of losses.

"Sir! Another 4 VTOLS have been shot down." Another reported, making that the 8th one shot down.

"Sir, we've lost the 3rd and 7th infantry platoons and 5th has taken heavy losses, they are requesting reinforcements or they'll be wipe out!" the third reported, bringing up the number of dead infantry to 143

"Have the 7th Rifle platoon disengage their target and head over there to assist." One of the staff officers ordered as they tried to balance their troop numbers.

"Sir they can't! They report that a crashed VTOL is blocking their way, it will take them 10 minutes to get there and by them the 5th Infantry Platoon will be destroyed. The controller reported.

"Change out codes, they're intercepting our transmissions!" Barley commanded when he realize that the enemy knew where their units were.

"We already have sir, four times!" A controller answered.

"Then do it again!" Bartley ordered, not understanding how they could be taking such losses so quickly

"This failure is unacceptable!" Clovis stated as eh got up from his throne to see the map himself.

"F-forgive me-!" Bartley stuttered out as he begun to apologise but was cut when Lloyd chose that moment to contact them.

"Good afternoon." Lloyd said over the video feed as his smug face took up most of the space in the screen

"W-what is you now?! We're the middle of an operation!" Bartley yelled, sick of tired of this man and his lack of respect or common sense apparently.

"I'll say it's time to deploy the A.S.E.E.C special weapon." Lloyd suggested only for Clovis himself to shoot him down.

"We have no time for this right now!" Clovis shouted as he looked down at the map to see the mess for himself.

At that moment, one of the RPG rebels fired his rocket into the side of an APC, destroying it.

"Your Highness, another APC has just been destroyed!" one of the controller reported, struggling to keep the comms free of anything other than static or pleas for mercy.

"Another 5 VTOLs have been downed." A controller relayed as he tried to contact the remaining birds in the sky

"How are we losing so many of them!?" Clovis yelled. Wanting to know the cause of this.

(With Lelouch)

From his position in one of the towers of the old Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, another missile streaked out of the opening into the sky, locked into a pre-set target. While his temporary forces attacked the brits in the ground, Suzaku had been feeding him information that the drones have seen gathering, including tagging enemy birds with trackers, which allowed Lelouch to program to seek out those same tags, resulting in VTOLs being shot out of the sky before they ever know what hit them. 'The operation is going slow, so far Nunnally has only saved around 5 000 people and those rebels helping her have gotten a further 900 people to safety, at this rate, we'll only get another 2 000 out. I need to speed things up.' Lelouch thought to himself as read Nunnally's report of the evacuation and how they were slowed down due to numbers and panicking civvies.

" **B2, fire anchor**." A VTOL was shot down via slash harken.

" **B15, use AP ordnance**." An APC was destroyed after being hit.

" **R1 through R11, eliminate those ground troopers**." The rest of 5th Platoon is wiped out after being caught in a crossfire between two buildings.

" **B7, through B14, continue your advance, wipe out those Purists**." A group of rebel Knightmares pushed forward, destroying 4 purists Knightmares as they do it

" **Q1, draw their fire and bring to E34**." Kallen moved into the field of vision of another three Knightmares, getting them to chase her down a street before she took a turn.

" **P2, P4, P5, P6, P8. Once Q1 bring those Knightmare into range, fire high explosive rounds on their asses, aim for the legs and arms**." The three machines are lost after they turn the corner only to be blasted by grenades from behind. The grenadiers having set themselves up on the right side.

" **B17, there's a Knightmare and two Tanks to your 5 'clock behind that building, get on top of it and fire HE rounds at them, focus on the Knightmare before taking out the tanks.** " Another rebel Knightmare used it slash harkens to scale an old apartment complex and fire on the brits on the other side.

" **K1 through 6, move 200 metres to your left, there should be columns of 5 tanks heading through there. Take them out**." A group of tanks were hit from two sides by RPGs after around 40 seconds of this, their armour gave and they all blew up.

" **R12, R13. Are those charges set?** " Lelouch asked as two rebels lay in the bushed by a small bridge over a stream.

" **Just finished, there is around 20 soldiers heading for us, they don't see us yet**." One of them conveyed as he watched a battered platoon try and retreat over the same bridge they crosses not 2 hours prior when they started this.

" **Make sure they don't, once they on that bridge, blow it up. Kill any survivors in the water before moving back to join the rest of R-group**." The two rebels smiled triumphantly as they were giving their orders. They waited for most of the troopers to have reached the middle of the bridge before they blew it. The three or four survivors were cut down by their bullets

(With Clovis)

"Sir, we just lost Lazlo squad!" A controller reported.

"Sir the 5th Platoon has been destroyed and I can't make contact with the7th." Another testified as he lost contact with them.

"Sir, out troops have been routed at point F29!" The first one conveyed as he tried to re-route their men to another crossing.

"Sir, Sir Eric and Sir Mendez are lost!" the third one informed them, the staff officered looking paler and paler as the bad news kept in coming.

"Sir, another 3 VTOLs have been downed!" A controller announced as the map that Clovis, Bartley and the staff officers were looking at showed just how much if their units were taken out.

"Sir, we just got word that another 8 tanks have been destroyed at point E41!"

"So do it! We'll have to bring up Quincy Squad." Clovis barked, angry as all hell at this mockery the elevens were giving him.

"But my lord that will break the encirclement!" Bartley reminded his prince as he didn't think that was a good idea.

(With Suzaku)

"Well now, at this rate pretty buy Clovis had three options. Man, Lelouch you really don't know how to hold back, do you?" Suzaku asked himself with a self-satisfied smile as he kept his friend up to date with all the battles his drones could see as well as feeding him the info he needed to take out those ugly looking VTOLs, I mean really, who thought that green would be a good look?

"Reinforce the breach with some of the units guarding me," Clovis ordered as he pointed to the red dot on the map. "All we know for certain is that main enemy force is here."

(With Jerimiah)

"Who ordered them to break formation?" Jerimiah asked as he walked back to the G1 only to see the units tasked with maintaining the encirclement head right into the ghetto.

(With Nunnally)

"Well, that is more foolhardy move, wonder how brother will react to this?" Nunnally said to herself as she just cut the call with Suzaku who explained to her the current situation, including Clovis apparently sending most of his forces to one spot.

(With Lelouch)

" **Q1, do you have an area map?** " Lelouch asked Kallen, a plan already cooking in his head.

"Yes, I have a map of the old town, but it has not current landmarks." Kallen replied, wondering why he needs it, after this she would buy him being some sort of god.

" **It'll do**." Lelouch assured her.

(With Clovis)

"Alright, send in Burts and the others to." Clovis commanded with a smile, finally being able to take these terrorists out of the picture.

(With Lelouch)

" **Mission number three now**." Lelouch ordered over the radio, calm as ever.

(With Clovis)

"Concentrate our forces there, surround them!" Clovis added as he amassed his troops for one final charge into the main battlegroup of the enemy.

(With Lelouch)

" **Is everything prepared?** " Lelouch asked, a small grin forming as he watched the Britannians speed towards the red dot they were no mistakenly seeing in their IFF screens.

(With Clovis)

"The enemy's main force is that dot, finish every one of them off." Clovis ordered, s smile forming as his face he aimed to end this farce once and for all.

(With Lelouch)

While Clovis made the order, all Lelouch did let a dark foreboding smirk form on his face as the Britannian units sped towards the dot ready to kill anything and everything that moved, only to find nothing.

(With Clovis)

"What? Where the enemy?" Clovis asked, drawing a blank like most of his staff as they wondered what just happened. Unknown to them was that the rebels were indeed there, just underground. As they away with Kallen tailing behind the group, the two foot soldiers who blew the bridge were riding on her Knightmares shoulders. Once they passed a certain mark, one looking at her watch looked at the other who held a detonator in his hands and gave a nod.

"With this, I call check." Lelouch said to himself as at the moment the one holding the detonator nodded back and pressed down on the button, blowing the around 200 kgs worth of C4 charges they had set up behind them. Causing the roof or floor depending on your POV to collapse, dragging hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of military hardware and a couple hundred soldiers to fly to a dark pit only to be crushed by the concrete, steel and debris from nearby building which collapse on top of them due to their already fragile foundation and support structures giving way. This caused many vehicles to explode and trigger secondary explosions which wiped out additional forces.

"Hahahahahaha! That worked better than expected. Now to prepare for the final push…" Lelouch laughed as he never thought taking on Clovis would be this easy, I mean yeah, it's Clovis the painter and not Cornelia the warrior or Schneizel the snake but he wasn't to be this damn easy for Pete's sake. He would have thought Clovis would have some competent advisors and other staff officers but it seems they were as dumb as he was. But he had other thing he needed to think of at the moment, like how he was going to blast and kill his way to get to that giant metal target soon to be Clovis' coffin.

 **Well there you have it folks, the first half of the battle of Shinjuku. As you can see I made a lot of changes to the cannon material such as giving Lelouch more people to work and more equipment then just Sunderlands. By the way the rifles they train was carrying are just the standard ones used by the Britannian military we see all the time, I think they would perform better than the SMGs they were using before and the RPGs were Britannian made FIM-92A Stinger. Nelly was Euphemia and Nunnally's nickname for Cornelia, same as Euphie and Lulu. Just don't ask me how they came up with it as I can get Lulu and Euphie but Nelly? I don't know how they came to that from Cornelia. Connie would have been better (Even if that's a boy name, Cornelia isn't the most…feminine women be any means, hell she shows herself to have more balls then Lelouch at times in cannon). As you all read, the battle in Shinjuku didn't go as it did in cannon as Lelouch was more focused on getting the civvies (civilians) out of harm's way, he had actually explosive expects who will be shown in detail as this story goes on and he wanted to keep Clovis off balanced, which he did by taking out most of his air power. I also changed it so that the rebels didn't just take on armoured vehicles and Knightmares but the infantry as well as we saw troopers participating in the massacre but nothing else. I'll reveal the exact number in a later chapter but Clovis suffered a loss here that for sure. The number of inhabitants dead will be releases soon as well so you know how much you should hate Clovis' guts. The next chapter will be the Lancelot debut under the new pilot, Rai. As for Rai himself, I didn't give him the whole memory thing as he needs to know who he is for this story, as you can imagine, he won't fight like Suzaku did in cannon. I can tell you guys that next chapter, even more bodies will hit the floor.**


	6. Counterattack: The White Knight awakens

**Well here we are with the sixth chapter of this retelling slash crossover and I can tell you that I love writing this thing, don't get me wrong, I love writing all my stories but this one had been sitting around my mind as an idea for months now and I couldn't keep it in anymore. The last chapter didn't go so well for Clovis as it did in cannon but he suffered more losses than the source material. I wanted to state that Lelouch was trained by Mandalorians for a full year, this is why he's damn good with hit and run tactics as well as more composed than he was in cannon, most of that arrogance was beaten out of him, literally (He and Suzaku spar a lot, and he losses…a lot). We also saw Suzaku not battling but acting as the eye in the sky for both he and Nunnally, helping Lelouch take out any VTOLs that may see Nunnally to keep the second stalker a secret, for now.**

 **Another thing I want to address is the time errors I made in the last chapters, as stated by the time frames in bold, ten years have passed since Japan fell, not seven as some characters have said, that was a mistake on my part which I apologize for. Characters like Alice were born in the ghettos and never lived life with a full citizenship and the rights to come along with it. I introduced he as living proof of the fact that Charles and Marianne's plan was just for them as they wished to return to a 'happy' past, they didn't take into account those who don't have to 'happy past' to run to like young children born into suffering caused by the emperor's policies and wars. They were just selfish fools who wanted to take a refrain dose that would last forever.**

 **Anyway, let's get on with it.**

 **Chapter 6: Enemy counterattack: The White Knight awakens**

 **March 27th 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11/Japan:**

 **Shinjuku Ghetto:**

(With the G1)

Silence

Utter Silence.

Not a word nor sound was made after the whole bridge crew saw the devastation brought to their heads, the certainty that one attack costing them hundreds of casualties ringing through the minds of all.

Clovis backed away from the operations table, having to keep himself from falling on his ass as the reality crashed down on him. Never had he seen Britannian forces so soundly beaten, never had the thought occurred to him that would heard the screams and pleas of his men as they fell into what must have been hell on earth only to be consumed by fire and explosions. He was out of his league, way of his league and he knew it. 'Who…who in the hell am I up against!?' he thought to himself as he backed further away, as it the table itself as an enemy ready to pounce on him. Then a thought occurred to him, one for frightening then he would ever admit. 'What if…what if he's even better than Tohdoh?'

That one thought pushed him over the edge, he didn't care anymore about the girl, Code-R or even the few survivors trying to contact command for orders or evac requests. He just wanted to see every last terrorist dead!

"Lloyd!" Clovis shrieked, not caring for appearances in his temporary lapse of judgement.

"Yes, you highness?" Lloyd replied with his usual smile.

"Can it win? Will your toy beat them?" Clovis demanded, his whole command staff now facing the monitor with Lloyd's face on it.

"Hmm, my lord. Please be so kind to call it Lancelot." Lloyd relied, ever confident in his creation.

(With the Lancelot trailer)

" **Z-01 Lancelot not activating. Lancelot activating. Releasing hatch. Z-01 Lancelot stand by for activation. Power extension imitating**." Cecile spoke over the speaker to clear the way as the ramp was dropped for the Lancelot.

" **Did you read the manual?** " Cecile asked Rai over a private radio frequency as he zipped up his white pilot suit.

"As much as I could." Rai replied as the shoulder inflated to his size.

" **Well done, you scored the top of the class in the simulator**." Cecile complimented as he moved out of the medical truck and made his way to his new machine.

" **Be advised, you not to do anything reckless, the new system is not outfitted with an ejection mechanism yet**." Cecile told him once he reached it.

"Okay, Understood miss Cecile." Rai replied as the tarp covering the Lancelot was blown off by the wind once the restraints were released. Giving him the full view of the white and gold beast.

"That's it?" Rai asked, awed by the sleek design and human like body, something not even Gloucesters had.

" **Yes, the advanced weapon developed by us in the advanced special envoy engineering corp. Lancelot, the world's first seventh generation knightmare frame**." Cecile told.

" **Well if you're ready Rai, shall we proceed with the initial start-up?** " Lloyd asked over the com as he stood alongside Cecile and another technician

" **Initial start-up now proceeding from phase 20, equipping energy filler**." Cecile called out as she moved a mechanical arm to place in the main battery.

" **Confirmed green start, energy filler now at full output**." The technician to the side confirmed once he saw the power reading reached optimal levels.

" **Seconds to reach critical voltage**." The technician said as the main systems powered up.

" **Core Luminous shifting phase**." Another technician called out standing to the side of the Lancelot.

" **Yggdrasil drive online and stable**." An automated voice said as the computers run its final checks.

" **Initiating devicer set-up**." Cecile announced as she opened the hatch for the cockpit block, allowing Rai to enter.

" **Confirming entry of devicer into Z-01. Individual ID registration confirmed**." Cecile said as rai sat down and the cockpit closed, encasing him in darkness before the monitors powered up.

" **Confirm man machine interface engaged**." An automated voice said as Rai put in the activation key for the Lancelot, powering up the main systems.

" **Visual reference confirmed, rejection response weak. Devicer stress response weak. All reading stable**." Cecile said as Rai gripped both control sticks as the core luminous begun to rotate in earnest, generating more power.

" **So far it's going per the data**." Lloyd narrated, pleased with his work and how no complications had arose.

"Lancelot, activate ME boost." Rai said as he activated the landspinners propulsion system as Cecile disconnected the power lines leading to the machine as the medical trucks in front of them moved out of the way.

" **Lancelot…Launch!** " And with Cecile's words, Rai pushed it. The Lancelot speeding away from zero to 70km/h in under 3 seconds. The burst of speed knocking the technicians, Lloyd and Cecile off their feet.

"Running full throttle right out of the gate!" Lloyd laughed as his pride and joy become a speck in the distance. Meanwhile with the Lancelot, Suzaku couldn't believe the speed he was getting, already he had hit 100km/h and was gaining speed, the Sunderland and Gloucester both had top speeds of 120km/h and here he was, nearly besting that right out the gate.

"Cooler than the manual, with this-ouch" Rai said to himself as grabbed as his chest, still feeling the effects of the bullet, even if it didn't go through his armour.

(With the rebels)

"What's that? It doesn't look like a Sunder-!" Tamaki was cut off from continuing as the Lancelot sped to its face and with nothing but speed and his machine's fingers, slashed off the head of his Sunderland which activated its emergency ejection function, sending a confused and pissed off Tamaki safely away. Rai picked up the Sunderland's rifle and saw it had around 20 rounds left before he found the spare ammo in the Sunderland and reloading, giving himself a clip filled with 45 rounds and a spare of 30.

(With Lelouch)

'One more push and the checkpoint falls' Lelouch thought to himself with a smirk. " **B3, how's mission 4 going?** "

" **Everything's on schedule but I can't get into contact with B** 5."

" **Understood**." 'What's happening with the loud mouth? He followed orders without complaint so far, why go ghost on us now? Probably should have a drone go see what's the problem'

" **This is Beta group, reporting enemy presenc** e." The leader of beta radioed in

"Reinforcement?" 'Clovis is sending in more troops, he's already lost more than half as is, how desperate is he?'

" **Status?** " Lelouch asked, needing more details that that.

" **Most ejected but we lost two of us. They took them out in nothing flat**." The beta group leader reported, sounding frantic and scared.

" **Enemy numbers?** " Lelouch asked, wondering what unit was this Clovis deployed.

" **Just one…I think it's a new model, never seen anything like i-yaaah** " Beta reported before the line went dead, looks like he was taken out as well.

" **Beta group, report! What's happening out there?** " Lelouch ordered, but after getting nothing but static, he turned his attention elsewhere.

" **Trucker-1**." Lelouch asked Suzaku over their private channel.

" **Yeah boss?** " Suzaku asked, looking over the data the drones were collecting, struggling to hold his lunch down as he watched the footage.

" **Get a drones to point A24 and A25, there's an unknown model destroying the rebels, I want eyes on it**." Lelouch ordered him, not willing to let some hotshot ruin his day like this.

" **Roger that, Drones ETA 30 seconds**." Suzaku told him as he re-ordered some drones to that area.

(With Rai)

Just as the last Sunderland fell, the Lancelot deployed its twin Factsphere to survey the damage, once he saw the three incoming threats, Rai activated the blaze luminous. " **You bastard!** " The rebels yelled as they opened fire but to their amazement and slight fear, they bounced right off the shield, they barely had time to report this before the Lancelot fired on them, killing two and forcing one to eject.

(With Lelouch)

"It deflect bullets?" Lelouch asked, wondering how that was possible as earth wasn't anywhere near the stage where they could create shield generators.

(With Rai)

Rai just finished off another rebel before he used his slash harkens like a whip and smashed a Sunderland into a building, destroying the machine, pilot and all.

(With the G1)

"For heaven's sake, now I'll owe my older brother a debt I don't mean to incur, it's for the best though." Clovis said to himself as he watched the Lancelot waste the terrorist frames with ease.

(With Lelouch)

" **All units, give it distance! The enemy model is most likely relying on speed and acceleration to match out numbers. Fire on it from a minimal range of 80m but only in short bursts, don't let a dust cloud form. B4, engage mission 4 now!** " Lelouch ordered as he started getting images of the strange unit from one of the drones. Already it had taken out 11 of his Sunderlands. Knowing that he couldn't let that knightmare near Alpha group as they carried out mission 4, Lelouch jumped out of the building before rising his front left leg and firing the red dart, revealing it to be a slash harken itself. Once it embedded itself into a nearby building, he used it to swing to where the fighting had picked up.

(With Rai)

'Something's off here, they clearly have a good commander but who is it?' Rai thought to himself as he noticed that the four Sunderlands remaining quickly broke off and started firing while moving, forcing him to constantly dodge and fire back only when given a chance.

(With the Lancelot's Trailer)

"These readings are even higher than predicted." Cecile reported, marvelling at the 83% sync rate she was reading, they predicted that even experienced pilots would only top at 56% first time.

"That's because of pilot is taking his job very seriously." Lloyd told her, pleased with the results his knightmare as getting.

(With Rai)

"Yes, they're on the run, if I destroy the Knightmares than this battle will be over." Rai said to himself as he closed in on read rebel, they of course fired on him but it simply activated his blaze and took the hits, however he didn't see the missile heading right for his flank and would have been a goner if not for Cecile's warning.

" **Rai, Look out!** " Cecile shouted over the comm, alerting him to the threat which he barely dodged. The missile struck the ground where he just was, throwing up a cloud of dust and smoke. Rai saw something big land in the smoke cloud but couldn't see what it was. When the cloud blew away, he, the Lancelot trailer and the G1 were shocked by the site of the mechanical spider standing there, eyeing him down with six unholy red eyes.

" **Miss Cecile, what kind of knightmare is that?** "

" **I don't know Rai, I never seen a design like that. It might not be a knightmare at all**." Both Lelouch and Stalker eyes the form of this new white Knightmare frame once all the dust had settled. For what is was worth, the new frame looked every bit as powerful as he suspected. From what he could see, it only had an assault rifle it must have picked up along the way. And four Slash Harkens, this must be new since till know all earth made machine only had 1 or 2, not 4.

Inside the Lancelot, Rai caught sight to the commander unit he was looking for. " **That's the main enemy unit?** " He said aloud, his cameras giving Lloyd and Clovis the much needed video feed. " **It's heavily armoured**." He noted as the armour looked more like a tanks than a knightmares.

" **So it would seem** ," Lloyd's voice cut in, " **But please don't underestimate this thing, as I would be extremely hacked off if the Lancelot took any damage.** "

" **Lloyd, this is combat, there's no way that a Knightmare can actually walk away unscathed, unless your pilot was as skilled as my dear sister, Cornelia** ," Clovis put in, glaring at the image before him, the spider-like machine seemingly glaring right at him through the Lancelot which was somewhat unnerving for him. " **Pilot, advance and destroy the target**."

" **Yes, My Lord** ," Rai said, and the Lancelot sped forward with his weapons primed and ready.

"Here we go!" Lelouch roared, "Stalker, activate all weapons system," he said to the machine as the rushed forward.

But when the two were near collision, the stalker broke off and started to show off just how mobile it could be. Just as the Lancelot fired towards it, the Stalker veered off to the right at the last second, launching up a fallen building and leaping back around behind the white Knightmare, firing off a couple shots from its mini-gun before it took off again, bounding up another building as the Lancelot dodged the shots, and firing another volley while it was busy. Rai cursed as he saw the shot coming, and raised his right arm to block it. Lelouch thought he had the machine right there, but the raised arm produced a bright green shield which the shot ricocheted right off and struck the building behind it.

Now Lelouch was invested in this fight, "So that's the Blaze Luminous?" He said as he remained stationary for a moment, the barrels of his mini-gun still smoking. A series of pings and sounds from the Stalker told him that his machine wanted to go all out, "Alright then." He looked over to one monitor which had Nunnally's face on it, "You ready on your end?"

Nunnally was smiling as he replied, " **We're all set here, just waiting on your signal**."

Lelouch smiled, "Lucky for you, you get all the small fry since I'm busy with the big one over here." He said, tapping a few buttons on the console, cutting the call before he focused on his own opponent. "Now then, let's see what this thing can really do under pressure." The Stalker gave out a roar (It sounds like the Spinosaurus in Jurassic Park III) as it lunged from the building it stood on and sailed over the battlefield toward the Lancelot. The White Knight was ready, and fired at the spider as it landed, but the stalker landed and quickly moved to evade the shots, firing off the mini-gun as the Lancelot left itself open for a split second.

Rai was blown back as the rounds hit, but kept his footing in the Lancelot, speeding away from the black spider, firing the two Slash Harkens at its hip. Rather than dodge them, the Tiger attempted to destroy them before they reached it, firing off a few shots from grenade launchers Rai hadn't seen.

But that was where the mistake was made.

The two Slash Harkens jetted to the left, of the shots, avoiding being destroyed. They then shot forward once again, and wrapped around the forelegs of the beast machine, the Lancelot giving a sharp tug, and pulling the spider into the ground.

Rai, seeing his chance to end the fight, shot the beast once more, sure he was the winner.

But his hopes were dashed when the shots didn't do jack to the spider and just bounced off its armour. The spider jerked it's forelegs a bit and shock off the cables before crushing on of the harkens before Rai could pull it back. Rai barely had time to get them out of the way before the spot he was standing on was peppered with grenades.

The humanoid and beast-like Knightmare circled each other, each knowing that the first to attack would set off the next round.

Meanwhile, Clovis and Bartley were watching the match with great interest. "Someone tell me that we're recording this?" Clovis said as one the crewmen nodded their heads, "That machine is amazing!" He said, gesturing to the purple and black machine, "It's even able to keep up with a Seventh Generation with the highest speeds I've ever seen on a Knightmare before, and that armour!"

" **It is rather impressive** ," Lloyd said through the com, "The weapons are conventional but used in such fashion they do serious damage, what I want to know is what the armour is made of, those rounds can kill takes at close range and they didn't even damage it."

"You can be sure to ask them when we've captured that machine," Clovis smirked, a glint in his eyes as he wondered what he brother would say if he presented a machine which matched the Lancelot, "I want it!"

Bartley smiled, " **You heard his Highness, Pilot, that machine is to be captured intact, and the pilot alive if possible! Clear?** "

" **Sir!** " Rai roared as he sped forward, making the first move.

"Back for another round I see, let's go!" Lelouch roared as he pushed forward in the Tiger, the P.E.C.A.A artificial intelligencecoming alive with anticipation and battle craze, "Let him have everything we've got!"

"Full charge it is then!" The A.I answered him as it armed everything as they leapt forward, all of its weapons coming open at once, and firing directly at the Lancelot with bullets, grenade and missiles.

"WHAT THE- !" Rai barely had time to activate both his blaze luminous shields as the shots destroyed the area around them, but Lelouch wasn't finished by a long shot as it kept up the volley of grenades and shots from his mini-gun, the force user determined to see the White Knight destroyed.

Rai saw that even the Blaze Luminous was struggling to keep up as his shield energy had already dropped to 70% just from this one fight. He could also hear Lloyd warning (yelling at) him to move as the shield generators were beginning to overheat from the barrage. When he saw an opening, he took it and raced off the close the gap between the two.

While this was happening, Kallen and Ohgi were hiding in the surrounding buildings waiting for the order to enter the fray. " **Man, they're seriously going at it out there!** " Ohgi yelped as a stray shot bounced off the Lancelot's shields and went over their heads. " **And he say he'll need our help?!"**

Kallen had her Glasgow ducked down for safety, and winced as an explosion rocked the area, " **He hasn't beaten his opponent, yet, Ohgi**." She pointed out, peeking up to watch the battle as the Purple and black Stalker jumped back from the Lancelot and leapt onto a small building, once more showing off its great agility. Both machines were locked in battle of missiles, bullets and shells as they tried to overpower each other. " **Whatever that Knightmare has going for it, K-1's machine is fighting it to its fullest ability. I can tell from the way it's moving**."

Ohgi panned left to look over the battle as the Lancelot kicked the Stalker into a building " **Think we should step in?** "

Kallen bit her lip before she hit the communications button, " **Negative, Spider-1 hasn't given the word yet, he's struggling but he looks like he's holding his own against it. We should move to mission 4 with the rest** "

" **Maybe that's for the best. I heard that Spider-2 is going to join the assault on the G1 with us**." Ohgi replied as he and Kallen snuck away from the battle as the Stalker fired a missile barrage point blank into the Lancelot, managing to damage one of the factspheres.

Once they were away from the fighting, Ohgi radioed in with the rest of their group, " **B17 and Q1 and myself, B1 are on route, we'll be there in 200 seconds, over**."

" **Roger that B1, we will wait 210 seconds before we begin the attack, the enemy forces don't look like their put up much of a fight. We must have taken down the bulk of them in that last op**." B17/ Minami said, " **Keep safe, you two**."

" **Roger that**." Kallen and Ohgi replied as the two raced off.

" **All units** ," Lelouch sent over their comms, " **Get into position, but do not fire until I give the time. I'll stay here and keep this knightmare from intervening in your assault, remember. I want Clovis captured alive if possible for questioning, there's no telling what he might know but you there is no other option I give my permission to kill**."

" **What about you?** " Kallen found herself asking with concern for their mysterious leader, " **How do you plan to beat that thing?** "

" **Let's just say that this spider knows how to dig…**." Lelouch told them as he eyes the data he was getting about the underground subways and sewers.

"… **If you say so Spider-1, B1 out**." Ohgi said as he cut the line. Lelouch eyes the white machine in front of him with a predators gaze, looking for any opening to exploit as he was sure the enemy pilot was doing to him. So far the white knightmare was the only one with damage as its right landspinner was shot with its right factsphere and left arm slash harken destroyed. For Lelouch the only problem was the ammo he had left as overall he had 45% left and that was mostly grenades as he pretty much spent most of his missiles. So he tried a different approach.

" **So…you're the one responsible for the deaths of my men?** " Lelouch asked, his altered voice carrying over all the radio frequencies to make sure he was heard by his foes. Rai was surprised by this as he didn't think the enemy pilot would talk.

" **They were nothing more than terrorists, even captured they would have faced the death penalty**." Rai answered him after a few moments not that beat up over their deaths.

" **So to fight against you pompous ass of a prince of terrorism is it? Pity, I thought you smarter than the average log**." Lelouch answered, knowing what he was doing and betting on the reaction Clovis will have.

" **If you think you can get away with insulting** -"Rai told him as he readied himself for the attack but he was once more interrupted.

" **A scared man whore who illegally creates poison gas on the side? Yes, yes I do**." Lelouch said as he loosened the shock absorbers on the legs and prepared to jump

"How DARE he?!" Clovis raged, insulted and most of all furious! How dare some eleven insult him like this? If he thought he was getting away with this, He had another thing coming!

" **Soldier, reverse your last order, destroy that unit immediately!** " Clovis ordered, wanting to see the spider be turn to a scrap pile.

" **Yes, my lord**." Rai cried as he charged the spider.

" **Bring it on you overgrown action figure!** " Lelouch cried out as he rushed the Lancelot, knocking it over into its back, he quickly got on top and was about to crash the chest in with his powerful front legs but Rai managed to rise its shield, blocking the blow.

"Good instincts, wrong opponent!" Lelouch countered as he jumped off the fired 4 more missiles at the downed machine, forcing Rai to keep the shields up and take the blast. Rai swore when he saw the Shield energy drop to 62%. He took the initiative when he saw a chance and kicked himself into a handstand and launched himself away.

However Lelouch was expecting something like that and was prepared for it. Just as the Lancelot landed, a grenade he had fired moments earlier impacted with the left landspinner, blowing it clean off.

"My baby!" Lloyd cried as he watched his baby be damaged and broken right in front of him. It took two others to keep him from charging into the fray to stop it.

"How did h-!" Rai thought aloud as the Lancelot was put off balance by that last volley, it only lasted a moment before he could right himself.

A moment was all it took.

" **Rai, look out!** " Cecile cried as Rai turn and saw more missiles heading his way, he didn't have time to rise the shields and braced for his death. Only for those very missiles to strike the ground around, he was confused by this till he noticed all the cracks on the floor and realized Lelouch's plan too late as the ground beneath him collapsed and he like the men before him, he fell into a man-made hole. The only saving grave was this one was only 9m deep as he fell into an old sewer but the fall had damaged his right leg. A shadow appeared above him and he looked up to see it. In front of him was the stalker, standing proud as the clear victor as the sunlight masking the unit made him look more….divine or maybe malevolent in its own way.

" **Good fight my dear pilot, you're not like the rest of those puny toys I crashed today and for that, you earned your life but next time we meet I won't so merciful**." Lelouch said over the speakers as he fired some grenades into the walls of the pit, causing debris to fall into Rai and bury his unit alive. Rai could only hope he could dig himself out in time. Once he was satisfied with his work, Lelouch left the scene and raced to get to the G1 for mission 4

(With the G1)

Now Clovis was scared.

No…that wouldn't do it justice….

He was downright terrified after watching the feed go dead.

How could a seventh generation knightmare lose?!

The entire fight the spider didn't take any damage at all. All the Lancelot did was scratch the paint for god's sake!

He needed to get out of her and fast, that….that…thing! Would be heading to him next and he wasn't stupid enough to think his remaining forces could stop it.

Clovis was startled as the Knightmare nearest to his base exploded in a ball of fire and slag. "What in the hell was that?!" The prince roared scared stiff as he fell into his seat, "When did those damn terrorist get close enough to - " He didn't get to finish as the unique sounds of LMGs firing on his infantry echoed over both the comms and from outside, showing that the rebels were closer than he thought. "BARTLEY!"

"Sir, the rebels appear to be firing from the alleys and building but with so many firing at once, our units don't know which one to take out first!" One crewmen reported, helplessly watching their men be cut down by foes that can't even see.

"Sir! we have already lost 30 soldiers and 2 tanks. Out units re retreating back into a perimeter but the tanks, APCs and knightmares are pinned down by grenades and rockers so they can't fire back. Out infantry don't have anything that can take out those grenade launcher nest!" Another crewmen reported as he looked out the window and saw the very tanks still burning after the missile strikes, their crews desperately trying to climb out while under heavy fire. That was all he saw before the G1 automatic defence system kicked in and the blast shields come down over the windows. The emergency lights kicked in as well.

"Sir, I highly recommend evacuating yourself from the base as soon as possible, this position's in danger of being overrun," the General said as their forces returned fire, only for grenades and rockets to decimate their ranks, cutting holes in their defence like a knife through flesh. "The fact of the matter is that, without the Lancelot to slow them down and chew through their Sunderlands, our forces are out classed by that new Knightmare, and your safety outweighs our victory over these Elevens!"

"I will not run from these dirt-devouring worms!" Clovis roared, he knew what happen to those who run in Britannia, he refused to be humiliated here "Have our men take defensive positions and take out those grenade nest! Can the G1's turrets help with that?" Clovis asked the people present.

"Sir, they could be used for that but they were designed to take out aircraft, we would have to manually aim them to target those nest!" One of the staff officers told him.

"The do it, at this rate, they'll break through" Clovis ordered them as the crewmen nodded and went to work, deactivating the auto targeting systems.

(With Tamaki)

Even though Shinichirō Tamaki would never admit it, he was LOVING this mysterious leader of theirs.

First he helps them beat back the brits from their home but now?

Now he was firing upon their base, wiping out even more of them. He would to thank the voice if he ever spoke with him again, after-all mission 4 was working in their favour.

Mission 4 was the tactic to scatter their forces into 8 different building and varying size and distance with will give them both broadsides of the G1 and the front of it. The Sunderlands would be further back along with the grenade launcher acting lime mortars and fire support while the riflemen and RPGs teams were closer to the G1 but hidden in placed their tanks and APCs couldn't easily reach. Once they all started firing, it become impossible for the brits to try and take their positions since the infantry would be cut apart by HE grenades and the armour would have to face with RGPs and knightmares. Even though he was still pissed that white knightmare beat him, he was perfectly content with firing a LMG along with the other beaten pilots.

"And down goes another boys, man Spider-1 loves shooting their birds down, don't he?" Tamaki asked his small gun crew as they watched the 4th VTOL go down in flames. The Spider machine behind them was indeed blasting the VTOLs but rather than guided missiles, Lelouch was forced to use his mini-gun as he exhausted his missiles. He was very pleased through when he saw that he still had 77% power even after 2 hours of fighting.

(With Lelouch)

" **Trucker-1, how's the evac going?** " Lelouch asked over their private line as he watched as the rest of the VTOLs got the message and stayed on the defensive.

" **Very well considering Nunnally isn't with them anymore, we have been able to get 16 000 people to safety and another 3 000 in about 150 seconds. By the way, way did Nunnally leave a kid with me?** " Suzaku asked, looking down at the sleeping girl on his lap as he drove the truck to another spot. It's not like there was anything to stop him, the brits didn't even know he was here.

" **I made a promise to her father I would take care of her**." Lelouch answered as he pulled his stalker into attack mode and made his way to the G1 via the rooftops, taking pot-shots at the soldiers who fired on him, and with rifles of all things.

Really it was as if they wanted to scratch his paint and nothing else.

" **Wow, if you wanted kids, I'm sure your sweetheart would be more than willing**." Suzaku told him, teasing his friend even though he liked those precious few moments his best friend showed he was more caring than most with such gestures and humanity and love. Helped to balance how he got when he was fighting.

" **It's not like that you ass, besides, I'm too young to be a father**." Lelouch told him as he made the last jump into the closet building to the G1, just in time to see Nunnally make her appearance by jumping down on a tank and like a spider, ripping it to shreds, of course he could see she purposely let the crew escape but the act would most likely terrify them for life, he could already see some of the remaining foot soldiers fall on their asses because of it

" **Says the one whose mother was 19 when she gave birth to yer, admit it. You want kids don't you**?" Suzaku asked him, having him stare into baby supply sort windows more than once over the years. He didn't know why his friend wanted kids of his own, maybe to have more people to love or maybe to be a better father than his own was to him, he didn't know but he saw what he saw.

" **We can take about this in private later Trucker-1, we still have a prince to capture don't we**." Lelouch told him as he saw a blue haired man rallying the remaining troops, he was impressed that he was keeping his cool and leading his men like any true general would. This co-in sided with the G1's anti-air turrets firing on his positions, most shots were off but he knew at least two were hit. Acting to stop them, he activated another systems.

The top of his Stalker abdomen opened up to reveal a circular plate, the middle of the plate started to rise revealing itself to be a tube like device with e different segments. While this happened, six antennae popped out around the disk and started generating an electrical current with the electricity very visible as it bounced from antennae to antennae. Once the tube reach its apex, the bottom segments expanded outwards till they were the same size as the disk. Finally the system red all green and with a savage grin, Lelouch it the button, causing the newly made hammer to strike down on the plate.

This caused a massive shockwave as the electrical current was spread out in all direction, effecting everything within 600m of him. The pulse revealed itself to be a super EMP as it knocked out the electronics of both sides machines, something blatantly make clear when the last remaining VTOLs came crashing down on their own forces after losing their power steering and engines.

Now it was his time to strike.

(With Clovis)

Clovis was beginning to hope they would make it out of here as he watched his turrets take out the rebels, allowing his men much needed breathing room to advance outwards and try to silence the rest of them but after everything that had happened, he didn't want to put all his eggs into one baskets just yet.

Seems like he was wrong.

Just as the 3rd rebel position was silenced, he heard a faint cry of lighting before all the systems went down, the lights flickered for a few moments before they too went out. The blast must been a powerful EMP as even the emergency lights didn't go off, hinting that they too were effected.

"What's going on?" Clovis demanded when all the lights went out.

"Must have been an EMP of some sorts, all the systems are dead." One of the bridge crew deduced as he tried to get the back-up generators online to no avail.

"Quick, we need to get his high-" Another started but was interrupted by a heavy object impacting with the G1 itself, nearly throwing Clovis to the floor if not for Bartley catching him.

 **Bang!**

"Now was is it?!" Bartley ordered as he pulled out his service pistol after the prince regained his footing, Clovis moving to the back of the group in fear.

 **Bang!**

"There it is again." A staff officer said as he and the rest had drawn their pistols, ready to defend the prince to the last if need be.

 **Ba-Bang!**

"It's on top of the G1!" A member of the bridge crew stated as looked over the ceiling to pinpoint where the banging was coming from.

 **Ba-Ban-Bang!**

"Impossible, if it was an EMP that took out our systems, then the rebels should be down as well." Bartley said as he knew the terrorists would have used an EMP earlier if they had it

"…Not that spider thingy." On the bridge crew muttered to herself, voicing her suspicions aloud and scaring the hell out of the rest of them.

"That-!" her co-worker tied to refute but was silences when a white leg, eerily similar to another monster they all had the displeasure of seeing in action, pierced through the 2 inch blast screen and impaled the poor man through the torso, his co-worker screamed and fell down on her ass, scampering away from his jerking boy before the leg withdrew itself and ripped open the hole into a gash the size of a car. Revealing its pink and white body. The crew all noticed it was a different colour than the other monster but they didn't care, as one they fired on it while Clovis dived behind his throne for cover.

Turns out that was what the new monster wanted as Nunnally confirmed his was out of the way before firing her PKP Pecheneg anti-personal machine gun, grimacing as she watched them be torn apart by her gun's 7.62x54mmR bullets. After around 8 seconds, she stopped firing and all that was left was carnage as the entire crew were nothing more than bullet ridden bodies with the staff officers being in the same. She could see that Bartley was still alive, unconscious but alive. She could see he has been hit more than a couple times as he was wheezing laboured breaths on the floor as he clutched at his right arm which had a rather large bloody mark, so she knew it had been hit. She surveyed the room a little more and once she was sure it was clear.

" **All clear**." Nunnally said over her speakers, getting Clovis to peak out of his hiding place to see the devastation brought upon his men which made him loss his lunch.

"Thank you spider 2, I'll take it from here" Lelouch said as he ripped open the top of the G1 with his own Stalker and climbed out of the cockpit, he jumped down into what was once a command centre, careful to avoid the severed limbs and blood splatter and made his way to Clovis, the prince in question was backed up against the wall, thinking of ways he could make a break for the entrance till Nunnally shot a few rounds into the space between him and said door, making sure he knew he was trapped.

"W-who are you?" Clovis asked, praying her could buy some time for his men to save him, even if they wasn't a possibility.

"That's not important right now but this is, order your remaining forces to retreat back to the settlement or not only will I kill them but you along with them." Lelouch told him as he made his way to his elder brother, feeling nothing but rage and disappointment in what he had become.

"B-but the EMP-" Clovis tried telling him but was interrupted when Lelouch tossed him a microphone

"You will used the speakers in the stalker behind me for that," Lelouch cut him as Clovis was surprised he would have something like that. "Come now don't waste my time or do I need to get physical?" Lelouch as he cracked his neck to emphasize his point. Lucky for Clovis he had gathered his wit at this point and was calm enough to make the announcement."

"Attention all forces, cease fire at once!" Clovis announced over the speaker, his voice being heard across the ghetto.

(With Jerimiah)

"Ceasefire?" Jerimiah muttered to himself as he Kewell and 4 others through the G1 on their way to the command centre, each person armed with an assault rifle as they made their way to see if the prince was unharmed. Meanwhile Clovis continued his announcement.

" **I Clovis, third prince of the Britannia and royal viceroy of Area 11 hereby command you: all forces are hereby ordered to cease fire at once!** " Rai was surprised by this as he just dug his way out the pit he was dumped into but his power was only at 30% from having to waste so much time digging.

" **You will also cease destruction of any buildings or property, all casualties, whether Britannian or Eleven shall be treated equally and without prejudice. In the name of Clovis la Britannia, you are hereby ordered to cease fire at once. I shall on further fighting**." Villetta was confused by the order but stayed put as she guarded the personal moving the bodies of the royal guard along with taking pictures and samples of the scene for investigation later.

(With the brothers)

"Are you satisfied?" Clovis asked of him, having stood up during the announcement and now stood face to face with his assailant.

"Not as much as I thought I would be but I'm content with that?" Lelouch told him, since he wanted no deaths today but he couldn't do that.

"SO what now, sing a few lively ballads or perhaps a nice game of chess?" Clovis asked, needing time to think of a plan that didn't end with him shot full of holes. Lelouch's dark amused chuckle sent shivers up his spine, more so as it reminded him of someone else.

"Please, if this battle was anything to go on, you couldn't beat a child… that's something I should now." Lelouch told him as he collected himself, smiling under his pilot helmet as he met Clovis' confused gaze.

"Hmm?" Clovis muttered, he didn't remember playing games like chess as of late, and he was pretty sure he would remember such an opponent as not many came to mind.

"Don't you remember, we used to play chess, checkers, old maid even poker as boys. Of course, I always won." Lelouch gloated, wanting Clovis to see it on his own.

"What?" Now Clovis was really confused as he hadn't played all those games with the same person since….since… oh God.

"It's true, I even remember all the times you stormed out the Aries villa ticked off after you lost a whole lot of money to me." Lelouch told him as he walked even closer, leaking his force power to make Clovis even more scared of him.

"It…it can be…" Clovis stuttered, that is impossible, they died, they dies ten years ago for Christ sake."

"In a way I did die seven years ago," Lelouch told him, as if he could read minds "In fact you can say I died in Shinjuku ten years ago and that I'm merely a ghost sent forward to avenge those you cut down today."

"B-But, your dead…your dead and buried!" Clovis now yelled, completely scared out of his mind as the implications of this conversation come crashing down on him.

"I assure you, I've never felt so alive. After all, my time off this planet was very awarding wouldn't you say, Clovis?" Lelouch said as he stepped into the light, allowing Clovis to see him for the first time in ten long years.

"Y-you." Clovis couldn't believe his eyes, here in front of him was his dear younger brother, but… but that would mean he was the one leading those terrorists, that he was the one who made a mockery of him…and might be the one to end him.

"The eldest child of the late consort and fifth wife, Marianne vi Britannia and former 17th in line for the Imperial throne: Lelouch vi Britannia at your service." Lelouch told him as he performed a mocking bow to his brother before placing his helmet back on. He didn't feel like talking to Clovis without it, this…this scared excuse of a man didn't deserve it.

 **Well that was chapter 6, we can expect that his conversation with Clovis will be very different to cannon as Jedi mind tricks don't work like geass and even then, Lelouch can always threaten him to tell him what he wants. As you can see, Lelouch dropped another hint to his enemies that he been off world but in both cases, they just assumed he's talking about hell. As you can imagine with so little survivors to work with, even if Cornelia wishes to purge Saitama, she'll not have as much information to go on as cannon and Lelouch might not respond well such blatant disregard for life as there even sith who didn't like killing innocents. I also changed the Lancelot appearance as for all its good qualities, it's still a prototype and much have some buys to work out such as Tony Stark, Mk I and Mk II as the Mk I had flight problems and the Mk II couldn't fly at high altitudes without freezing. Last chapter, I will reveal the faith of Clovis and that's when the cannon course really changes.**


	7. Liking wounds: The Painter's end

**Ladies and gentle memes, here we are with the 7** **th** **chapter of The Force Unleashed. I gotta say this is a story that I been wanting to write since my first year of High school as I was a serious Star Wars: the Clone wars fan and my friend introduced me to Code Geass. Like with many people, I saw that the two universe's could mix quite well as like with most I pictured Lelouch as a sith, maybe Sith Lord. However the problem with that was that the Sith represent everything he hates, Palpatine, Bane and Maul in particular as they used their power in the same fashion as the nobles of Britannia and the High Eunuchs of the Chinese Federation and as a result, he would most likely side against them for this, even if he the kind of guy that can be classed as a dark side user, that in itself doesn't make you evil. He would most likely be a Jedi like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker or Quinlan Vos. A firm believer in the ideals of the Jedi order but smart enough to know there are times when you must break them to uphold them while also being wise enough to know when those times arise and not just doing to suit themselves.  
Anyway, as stated in the last chapter, this chapter will vary a lot from cannon episode 3 of R1 as for one thing, the entire Ashford scene can't happen in the same manner as Lelouch isn't a student there yet so this chapter will focus a little more on Kallen's group as well the Britannian colonial government and how they rest to this as Suzaku isn't there for them to frame so they kind of have to actually investigate first. Villetta in this story is more of an investigator than soldier as she understands these things better than her compatriots do. As for Lulu's little desire for kids, he's the kind of person who would want someone to hold as we all saw how kind and loving he was to Nunnally in series, there have even been writers on this site that say he was more of a parent then brother as he did everything for her but didn't want to burden her with the details as to how he did those things. Another reason I want to make him a father of sorts of because I just recently finished reading Code Tekka: The Geass Knight (Great story you guys, you should definitely give it a try) and I like how the author makes Lelouch question his own humanity while those around like Shirley and Kaguya reassure him that he's more human than most. I'm trying to paint the same picture here as we all saw how he tortured a guy to death for information( the bad side), Now I want to try and make a loving father side(Brother side).**

 **Chapter 7: Liking wounds: The Painter's end**

 **March 27th 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11/Japan:**

 **Shinjuku Ghetto:**

(In the destroyed command hub of the G1)

"I'm overjoyed Lelouch, they said you died when Japan was brought into the fold, what a blessing to have you back. We should depart for the homeland immediately." Clovis said, slightly scared of the pistol aimed right in his face.

"So you can use me for you own gain, after all Viceroy, you seem to have forgotten why we were used in the first place." Lelouch answered, not letting any of his bitterness out but still sounding angry. At Clovis widening eyes, he knew he remembered.

"That's right, it was because my mother was killed." Lelouch answered him, wanting him to know his true reasons.

"Mother held the title of knight of honour and was the former knight of six but was a commoner by birth. No doubt the other imperial consorts held her in content seeing how she proved even commoners could become powerful." Lelouch told him, his tone leaking contempt for the nobility in their arrogance and greed. He knew she embodied everything Britannia stood for as she proved herself stronger than any other, even defeating Bismarck who still is the Knight of One in single combat. He knew it was for that reason she was hated by the upper class who knew they could never match her in anyway as the only thing they had was their noble birth with no qualities and skills to speak of, he knew that they killed her out of jealously and spite.

"Even though you made it look like the work of terrorists, I'm no fool. You people killed my mother!" Lelouch roared, his form shaking but the gun still firmly aimed between the eyes of Clovis, if anything, the gun moved closer to him.

"It wasn't me, I swear to you it wasn't!" Clovis pleaded, pleading his case in his innocence.

"I know it wasn't you miserable pile of crap. But I also know you have information, information I want so tell me what you know." Lelouch told him, his tone oozing anger as he switched off the safety of his pistol in a way that made sure Clovis could hear it.

"Schneizel, Schneizel and Cornelia! They can tell you!" Clovis blurted out without thinking.

"They are a part of it, Schneizel I can buy but Cornelia is a bit of a stretch, don't you think?" Lelouch asked, he could buy Schneizel having something to do with it as he was always working some angle, he never did anything that wouldn't benefit himself in some way.

"I don't know! All I know is that Cornelia headed the investigation before the emperor called it off and Schneizel was the one who had the body moved. I swear to I had nothing to do with." Clovis told him, while he raised his hands in a feeble attempt to protect his face.

"So my mother wasn't buried then, then what was in the damn coffin!?" Lelouch ordered, he could hear Nunnally's breath hitch at the last part, so these bastards even denied his mother a burial did they, heads were going to roll for this.

"I don't know I swear, the coffin may have been empty for all I know or had someone else in it, all I know is that Cornelia didn't stop when the emperor ordered her to and secretly carried on for a few more months before she called it quits!" Clovis told him, he knew that Cornelia must of knew more than him, she just had to! Lelouch thought about for a moment before he stepped back, allowing Clovis a moment to breathe a sigh of relief, till he saw the gun was still trained on him.

"I believe you….however…" Lelouch told him as he took aim.

"Please y-you can't, you and I may have different mothers but you and I are still blood!" Clovis begged, he didn't want to die, not like this!

"You may be innocent of my mother's death but you are very guilty of genocide this day brother, besides…on us being siblings, justice is blind and true." Lelouch told him and was about to pull the trigger but his force enhanced reflexes kicked in and he jumped back just in time to avoid the bullet that smashed into a computer. He looked to the side door and saw five armed soldiers there, all their rifles trained on him. The lead solider then barked out.

"Halt in his name of his majesty!" Jeremiah ordered as he and the rest of the men tried to get into the room but he saw that the second beast he saw outside was here and it had a gun trained on them, acting on instinct, he dived forward and pushed his compatriots to the ground and saved him from the machine gun burst that nearly ended him.

"Kewell get down!" Villetta yelled as she pushed the before mention man to the ground as the last guy of their group was shredded by the gun fire. Lelouch knew he was out of time but he still needed to do one last thing.

"Well it seems our time is over Viceroy, tell the devil I said hello." Lelouch told them as he took aim and fired, hitting Clovis just above the eye with the bullet exiting the back of his head in a bloody mess.

BANG!

"Your highness!" The soldiers yelled futilely as Clovis fell down to the ground face first, his blood caking the wall behind him, enraged by this, Jeremiah stood back up and fired at Lelouch who jumped upwards into the outreached leg of his stalker, all the while Nunnally kept up the gunfire with a few shots smacking into Jerimiah who didn't register the pain in his tunnel vision.

"Margrave Jerimiah! Don't" Kewell yelled, running to his comrade.

"Die terrorist scum!" Jerimiah roared he kept up the fire as Lelouch climbed back into the stalker before the cockpit closed up, shielding him from harm. He would have continued if not for Kewell pushing him to the ground before the gun was focused on him.

"We need to get out of here Spider-2, let's move it!" Lelouch told Nunnally as he moved the stalker to the front of the G1 with Nunnally behind him.

"Copy that Spider-1." Nunnally told him as she stopped her barrage and moved to stand next to him. She jumped first and raced into the ghettos leaving Lelouch alone with them before he too jumped, but not before he left a message.

" **And for my parting gift, I give you a message a Britannian foes…stay out of the ghettos if you value your lives**." Lelouch told them over the speaker before he was gone, his stalker speeding away.

"Come back here you coward! Come back here and face the wrath of Jeremiah Gottwald!" Jeremiah shouted as he stood back up, his wounds starting to show as he grabbed his right arm where he was shot.

"There will be a time and place for that later Margrave, the prince is wounded and is in need of immediate medical assistance! We need to get him to the settlement at once." Kewell told him as he gestured to the troops trying to stopped Clovis' bleeding while they fashioned a make shift stretcher for him. Jerimiah stood there for a moment before he regained himself and nodded to his second in command.

"Grrr, we have to tank one of the back-up jeeps, they're the only thing that were outside the effect range of that EMP pulse." Jeremiah ordered them as he walked to Bartley and checked his pulse and found he was still alive, if not barely, luckily for them for troops run in and he ordered them to get the prince and general out of there before they sir-came to their wounds.

"Yes my lord, hurry up people we need to move! Make sure to be gentle with his highness, and reinforce his neck now!" Jeremiah ordered as he helped moved the prince to the back of the G1 where the jeeps were waiting for them. Even if no-one thought it, they all knew.

This day…they lost and they lost big.

 **March 30** **th** **2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11/Japan:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

(Defacto Lamperouge Residence)

"Wakey wakey, sleeping beauty. You had your nap." Lelouch suddenly announced to the sleeping man. At the sound of the rather loud wake-up call, Nagata's flew right open. He quickly looked over the room he was in and realized that he wasn't in the ghetto, the place was too nice. Another thing was that there was a Britannian looking at him with a smug face while wearing…a lab coat. Next to him was a little girl with pink hair wearing a little nurse's outfit? The presence of the Japanese looking girl threw him off long enough for Lelouch to give an explanation.

"Before you try and attack me rebel," Lelouch stared off, Nagata's body stiffening at the fact the Brit knew what he was. "Just know you're in a safe place, don't worry I'm not gonna rat you at to the cops after I put so much work patching you up." Lelouch finished as he took a seat on the stool next to the bed. He quickly placed Alice on his lap was as sat quietly as he watched her new guardian talk with the man who had been asleep since she got here.

"What?" Nagata asked, his mind still a bit foggy.

"I mean I was the one who found you in Shinjuku and organized for you to taken out of there after a got that bullet out of you." Lelouch told him as he took out a board that Nagata believed to have his medical stats on it.

"…Yeah…Yeah I remember someone helping me out of the truck…that was you?" Nagata asked him, having remembered a blur helped him out of the truck before passing out.

"Yes, yes it was. Truth be told you gave us a bit of a scare when you fell into that coma but you sure are stubborn as I never heard of someone waking up from a coma after only 2 days and 10 hours." Lelouch told with a smirk on his face that slightly unnerved Nagata.

"I was out for that long? What about the-" Nagata asked but stopped himself before he revealed too much.

"You mean your comrades in arms, they no doubt suffered losses of that I'm sure but for the most part they should be good. After all, besting Clovis and wiping out all those troopers and Knightmares must have been great for morale." Lelouch told him when he saw what the man wanted to ask.

"You mean that the gas worked?" Nagata asked, giving up being subtle and getting straight to the point.

"Hate to break it for you but there wasn't any gas in that pod you stole." Lelouch told him with a frown as he knew what it was like to not have all the pieces of the puzzle, Nagata surprised and aggravated face said it all.

"There wasn't? Then what in the hell was it?" Nagata questioned, he and Ohgi were sure it was gas, they checked every lead they could before that op. Luckily, Lelouch covered Alice's eyes with his hands to stop her hearing Nagata cursing.

"Firstly, language mister, there a child present. Say hi Alice." Lelouch scolded like an old parent before turning his attention to Alice to give her a warm smile. She smiled back before getting off his lap and walking closer to the bed.

"Hi mister, Lulu got you got of there and played doctor with you. He said you should be good now." Alice introduced herself with a short explanation of what she saw happening as she was too young to understand what Lelouch was doing exactly but knew enough from playing doctor to know he was helping him.

"Hi to you as well, I'm Nagata by the way." Nagata introduced as he smiled at the little girl, taking in the fact she looked well taken care of.

"And secondly, I don't have the faintest idea as to the true nature of your cargo as it wasn't a gas but a pod with a girl in it. As for what she is, all she said is that she has something Clovis wanted but she refused to give it to him." Lelouch told him with a frown as he remembered how 'C.C' wasn't very forth coming of details, all the damn women wanted as pizza and only told them that much after 6 large pizza's.

"Wanted, past tense. Why wouldn't he want it now?" Nagata asked, if Clovis wanted it so bad then, why not now?

"That's because I put a bullet in his little arrogant head that day." Lelouch told him like he was reading the weather, fully knowing what the man's reaction to this will be.

"What! You managed to off a prince of the realm?" Nagata asked, never before had a member of the imperial family been killed in such a fashion, It was always infighting or genuine accidents that were the culprits.

"Yes I did my good sir, but only after I lead your comrades to a massive victory over Clovis and wiped out a good portion of his forces." Lelouch elaborated for him before he added. "And before you asked how I was there, I was the guy you nearly ran over, remember?"

"That was your fault you know." Nagata answered after a few tense moments as he looked away.

"I wasn't the one speeding, you're driving needs some work." Lelouch fired back with his smirk on his face.

"I put it on my list. What the situation like? What happened after I went under?" Nagata inquired, he needed to know what the hell went on while he slept. The predatory grin Lelouch shot him did little to soothe his mood.

"Oh well I have a tale for you Nagata-san." Lelouch said as he begun a long and complex tale as to how the Battle of Shinjuku started, played out and ended.

(Viceroy's Palace)

"Lord Jeremiah, I have the results of the autopsies you requested." The technician handed a dossier to the Margrave sitting at his desk and surrounded on the sides by Kewell and Villetta. It had been less than three days after the defeat in Shinjuku, but the workload was such that none of them had more than four hours a night to rest, weariness apparent in their faces going by the sunken bloodshot eyes, Kewell already got into a fight with an office worker over a cup of coffee which forced them to move a coffee machine to their pureblood offices with extra water, sugar, milk and coffee beans.  
Things have been anything but good lately, after the got the prince to the Settlement, he was immediately air-lifted to the best hospital they had. The doctors worked for eight hours on the prince to save his life but it was all for nought, Clovis was alive alright but the terrorists shot had done too much damage to his frontal lobe and destroyed other neural pathways, rendering him brain dead. With the prince as is, the only ones who can decide his fate would be the emperor and his siblings if they became the new viceroy.  
The recovery operation had to be kept quiet lest the public and other resistance groups get word of this and cause even more chaos for them. Unfortunately by the time they made it back to Shinjuku with the equipment needed to get their men out, they only found men. The remaining knightmares and APCs had been taken by the terrorists and with no forces or desire to reclaim them, Jerimiah was forced to only evacuate his soldiers.  
The only god thing that could be taken from this was the fact that General Bartley was alive as the machine gun that should have killed him just shredded his arm and he needed a liver transplant, but he was alive. Jerimiah planned to have a talk with him about this once he woke up from the medically induced coma. Keeping the news of their defeat out of the public eye was the hardest part as rumours were already circulating that they lost some equipment.  
The families of the dead soldiers were particularly adamant that their lost sons and daughters be honoured but they reached the agreement that they will be honoured when they news was released.

"I'll read it later with eases. Now I want to hear from you what you've discovered." Jerimiah ordered him. He wanted the opinion of a medical professional.

"I'll be honest sir, whoever you're dealing with…they have high grade military training as all the royal guards were killed with the same type of rounds: FN 5.7x28mm, Belgium made bullets. This leads me to believe that there was only one gunmen in this incident. Lieutenant Nu's deduction over the flashbang was also correct as examination of their eyes showed that three of them were hit with it shortly before death." The technician told him, having been present when the autopsies were carried out.

"The commander, he had it much worse. The doctors determine he was shot two times, one in the leg and the other through his hand, evidence dictates it was his shooting hand meaning he was disarmed by your assailant. But what was a scientific impossibility was that he was found to have been electrocuted numerous times in a short time span with enough volts to kill a man as his heart failed and was found to have suffered 3rd degrees burns, normal electricity can't do that my lord, the power needed for this would require a direct line to the power station which isn't available in the ghettos."

The three don't lifted a facial muscle: they had already seen the bodies up close and overcome any inconvenience caused by their sight. No, what they felt was concern: first, because they had nothing but deaths caused by inexplicable means and therefore did not know how to prepare countermeasures; second, because other trials have already noted the total absence of evidence to point to the culprit, the autopsy was their last hope.

"Let's pass to the dead of the base: all of Prince Clovis' staff and bridge crew were killed by a powerful machine gun, the AP rounds tore through their body armour and killed most instantly…it was a body mess my lord as the gunner didn't stop firing till some fore torn to pieces as with the case of Major Canard, who had his arm blown off.

A moment of silence as Jerimiah digested that before he sighed in exhaustion. "It's all?" Asked Gottwald.

"It's all." The tech reported.

"Thank you, you can go now." When they were alone he turned to Soresi. "Your opinion?"

"Apart from the methods used, it is clear that we are dealing with a professionals, one who is playing psychologically. Many of the deaths were purposefully gruesome, to paint a picture of a monsters and spreading panic. "

"And it's working," Stepped in Nu. "I heard some rumours, the most absurd of all tell about _aliens_ of all things. Still, one wonders why they tortured Prince Clovis' royal guard captain.

"According to the situation, maybe they knew there wasn't any gas in that capsule and wanted information from the logs it seems that Bartley told them but as to what he said, the records were too damaged by the machine gun." Soresi said as they were able by some miracle to recover the truck and after a detailed analysis of it, they couldn't find any signs of gas or gaseous substances there, only fibres and human hair which after comparing to records in the system, came back with one unknown and one of eleven ancestry. As of now, all they knew was that Clovis wasn't trying to get back poison gas as they had been told, something else Jerimiah wished to take up with Bartley. None of this made any sense

"Unless..." Muttered Jeremiah attracting the attention. "Unless his goal is more...deep."

"What do you mean?" Villetta asked, what could be more important to terrorists than assassinating a prince of the realm?

"Killing a member of the Royal Family is the dream of every terrorist scum of the colonies, this is clear. But do you remember the battle? We were winning easily when at one point the enemy has acquired Knightmares and began to move in a much more organized style. It don't seems a predetermined operation, so it is logical to assume that they have received unexpected help. Suppose that the mysterious strategist and the assailant are the same person or belong to the same group: what is the most obvious result that he obtained with these actions? "

"...He shamed us." Declared Villetta.

"That's correct but more than that, he tortured the captain, what for what. I'll tell you what, information. The only ones who knew the true contents of the capsule were the royal guard, Prince Clovis and Bartley. With two of those groups gone. Our killer knows something we don't, and that's not all." Jerimiah told then as to him that was the only reason open to go through all that.

"That's right: he has demonstrated not only that he can fight on equal terms with us with few resources, but also that he consider us so little of a threat to afford to kill. The people killed were the real masterminds behind the organization of the army, and if he was aware of it it's even worse because it means he knows a lot about us, too much. We have to catch him at any cost." Kewell said as the entire of Clovis' staff were killed, leaving only them to handle things in their absence.

"I agree but what are we to do? Bartley is the only one who knows anything and as it stands now he's not much help." Villetta asked.

"There also the issue with the rumours spreading around. Margrave the emperor needs to be informed as well lest he finds out on his own." Kewell reminded then as they haven't had the time to inform Emperor Charles on the situation either.

"….Kewell, your look into any and all leads you can find on that capsule, the sooner we know the contents the better we can prepare for it. Villetta, look into rumours and work with the media and prepare a press release before this blows up in our faces…I'll…I'll contact his majesty." Jerimiah told them as he grimaced at the thought of reporting the death of the prince, both Kewell and Villetta gave him a sympathetic look before leaving the margrave's office to carry out their orders.

"How many? How many royals must die on my watch before it ends?" Jerimiah softly asked himself as he turn his attention to the small picture frame on his desk. The picture in it was an old one but it was well taken care of.

A picture of a smiling woman with black hair in an orange dress, alongside her were two happy children.

(Lamperouge Residence)

While Jerimiah was envisioning how his report with the emperor would go and with Lelouch explaining the situation to the newly awaken Nagata, C.C was left to her own devices. After she stone walled Lelouch in his questions of her, he had her placed in her own room. The place was okay was it did have a bathroom and good view of the property but the door was locked from the outside and try as she might, she couldn't pick the damn lock and the windows were bulletproof. Even then she didn't know if she wanted to get out was Nunnally had used some sort of telekinesis to pick her up and take her here, she didn't know how she did it and wasn't in the mood to find out if that was the only thing they had stored. Luckily Nunnally did convince her brother to along her a house phone to call when it was important and arranged for her to get four large pizza's a day, so it was liveable.  
Right now she was in the bed eating a slice of it in her underwear as she contemplated the news, she didn't have any plans for the day till she received a mental call. A call from a familiar person.

' _Hello C.C. How does it feel to be out again?'_ Marianne asked her long time contractor.

' _Well, you sure took your time calling.'_ C.C mentioned as she expected this call sooner.

' _It wasn't my fault you know, I was busy for the last few days and only could call now.'_ Marianne apologized.

' _I'll accept that for now. And it feels good, no more experiments to worry about for a while. And I found your children you know, they were the ones who got me out after the rebels store my capsule.'_ C.C told her as she ate her pizza.

' _Really? That wonderful news. I was worried about them since no-one could find them. It was if they dropped off the face of the planet. Are they well. I heard about the chaos in Shinjuku you know, I suppose you gave him a Geass?'_ Marianne asked, she knew how C.C operated.

' _Physically health, they were going great, Nunnally can walk around on her own two feet and everything, even Charles Geass seems to have lost its effects on her. And no, I dint form a contract with them as they didn't need it. They seem to have come across a power that is even more…effective than geass.'_ C.C told her carefully as she didn't really have an explanation for it just yet.

' _Nunnally recovered, that fantastic, we were worried she would be stuck in a chair for life…wait, what power?'_ Marianne asked, this must be big if the white witch had to search for the right words.

' _Well he help me out and took me to their little hideout in the settlement and took me to my new room.'_ C.C started her tale.

' _And?_ Marianne asked, even if getting C.C to do something was a feat of its own this couldn't have been what was getting to her.

' _Nunnally lifted me off the ground without touching me and carried me here._ C.C finished.

'… _I'm sorry did you say that Nunnally carried you without touching you?'_ Marianne asked, wondering if she heard that wrong.

' _I did, she seems to have same kind of telekinesis and there's also the matter that they have access to same kind of knightmares that can wipe the floor with Sunderlands and take shots like a beast.'_ C.C elaborated as she herself still had a hard time believing this.

' _Maybe you been eating too much pizza C.C'_ Marianne suggested as what she was hearing shouldn't be possible, even geass was nothing more than a mental boost.

' _How dare you suggest that? I'm perfectly lucid thank you very much. Besides, I can't believe it either but I was there when they re-watched the footage they had of it. Those beast of theirs appear to have same kind of advance IA as they were moving around on their own and were talking with them. Oh and Nunnally apparently gun down a room of Clovis' staff officers with a machine gun and Lelouch put a bullet in Clovis._ C.C told her as he reached for another slice.

' _Are you telling me that my babies has become heartless killers with inhuman powers?'_ Marianne asked, aghast at the news of her babies

' _Nothing so grim. Lelouch did take in an orphan girl after he father died in the fighting, apparently she watched her father be gunned down in front of her and he sympathized with her. The little troublemaker is a sweet girl, you would be proud to be a grandmother to such a child. Besides Nunnally doesn't like to kill from and was helping to get people away from the fighting and what I've seen and the Kururugi boy is of same mind. Lelouch on the other hand appears to mostly kill and from what I heard, he can use lighting or something as he electrocuted a guardsmen for answer and accidently killed him. BTW your kids seems to have inherited your talent with piloting as from the footage I saw, they move those things like they were born attached to them._ C.C said as she sent a picture of the little one to Marianne who gushed over it through the mental link.

' _On the first note, I'm waaaaay too young to be grandmother just yet, even if I'm a spirit right now since I'm only 39 but I would like to hear more about this new child my Lulu has taken a shining too. On the second note, I'm happy to see she didn't turn out like Carine but Lulu was always…different to other kids, he always had this cold view on things that most kids wouldn't even be able to comprehend and the whole electro thing, as much as he would deny, sounds like something Charles would do since it got what he wanted. And the last thing, of course they're good: I'm their mother after all! I made sure to teach Lelouch everything I know and made him watch all of my recorded battle so he could become a knight of round as well and cement the Lamperouge name in the books…also so he could show those stuck up bitches that he was worth ten of their sons and more. I was about to teach Nunnally as well when that bastard of V.V. shot me before I could. MY children must have REAL value not only a pretty face and a distinguished heritage like those other harlots and fags...wait wait I'm digressing: what is Lelouch doing now?_ Marianne said after she made her point about her age.

' _Right now, He's informing that rebel he saved about the situation, Nunnally went out and Suzaku in the kitchen, probably making himself some pancakes.'_ C.C told them as she saw that boy had a sweet tooth.

' _My, at this rate Cha-Cha will have a lot of work._ Marianne signed as she imagined that her children wouldn't be willing to sit down and talk without Lelouch at least trying to kill Charles and if what she was hearing was true, he may succeed.

 _'Yeah, he...Cha-Char?'_ C.C asked, having never heard this before.

' _Uh, uh, it is the nickname we used in private us royals: Lelouch was 'Lulu', Nunnally 'Nunna', Euphemia 'Euphie', Cornelia Nelly, Clovis' Clo', I 'Ann', Charles 'Cha-Cha'...'_ Marianne chirped.

' _How the hell did you get him to agree to such a thing, you know he likes his name as right?'_ From what C.C could remember on him, Charles wasn't one for games and often was dragged into by Marianne.

' _Yes yes yes: obviously only us consorts called him like that, and only in more...'intimate' situations. I remember one time...'_ That was when C.C cut the connection before she heard more, sometime Marianne would use any and everything to get under her skin, and talking about her sex life with the man was one of them. At least Charles and she hadn't done anything since she was 'killed'. The man had some morals at least.

(With Nagata and Lelouch)

Lelouch had just finished his explanation of the current state of affairs as he sent Alice away when the details become more…grim. It took 20 minutes but Nagata now knew everything.

"So many people?"

"[sigh], that's the part I don't like to think about. The ghetto had around 200 000 people prior to that whole mess. From what we could find out, around 11 500 were killed or wounded before we stepped in," Lelouch started as he gestured to himself before he continued "And around 4 000 more afterwards. We were able to save 7 000 people as we fought back but mostly children as the adults wanted them to live on. All on all Shinjuku lost around 17 000 people. Even with Clovis dead and the imperials firmly beat, that's far too high a price to pay."

"All those people, just cause we stole something from Clovis." Nagata mourned, as he gripped his head in his hands as he imagined all the blood split, for the lives ended, all the families destroyed. However before he lost himself to grief, Lelouch placed a comforting hand in his shoulder that snapped him out of it.

"Don't beat yourself over it, no-one could have predicted Clovis was that vain that he would do such a thing. However we did capture video of it and for operation: Dishonour we are going to make the entire royal family pay." Lelouch told him as he looked out the window towards the skyscrapers of the settlement.

"Operation: Dishonour?"

"Yes, we are waiting for the government to release their statement on the matter and what bull crapped they spew out and when they do, we'll highjack the airwaves and reveal what really happened to the world. Not only will drag the reputation of the royal family through the mud but it will destroy most of the PR that Clovis and his media goons have been building over the years which will make it harder and harder for them to operate when their own people start to question the nobility." Lelouch explained to him with a grin that said how happy he was with the thought of all the chaos he will cause.

"Because their honour will be thrown into question, hence dishonour as Clovis will be forever marked as a pariah and force the people to ask questions…" Nagata begun as the true weight of it fell on him.

"Questions that Charlie and his nobles don't want to answer." Lelouch finished as she shot the man a predator's grin.

"That…that is actually well thought out." Nagata admitted as most resistance groups didn't think you use the people they were fighting against as a means of warfare.

"You can thank my sister for that, my plan was more…bloody, but let's not get into that shall we. Once I'm sure you won't collapse on your face, you'll be out of here but I will need a way to contact your friends, I like how they operate and I think we can have sort of partnership in the future." Lelouch told him as he won plan involved an orbital bombardment of the Viceroy's building and then a hostile government takeover.

"Well that is a number I remember…" Nagata started before a piece of paper was put right in his face along with an expensive looking pen.

(With Kallen)

"So how's campus life treating you?" Ohgi asked Kallen over the phone. Currently she was at Ashford University under the guise of Kallen Stadtfeld, she didn't like it but Ohgi didn't let her argue her case.

"Stifling, I was stuck in history class yesterday. Look, maybe I should just heard back. Kallen suggested as he hated how the Britannians twisted history to suit them, even the history of other cultures such as Japanese history. All to make themselves look like some superior race.

"Even if there hasn't been any movement of brits into the ghettos, we should let things cool off." Ohgi told her as he was sitting in their hideout, there stolen Sunderlands clearly visible in the background

"But-but what about that spider thingy?" Kallen asked, she was the first one to suggest they try and find it.

"We can't go looking for it, with that EMP he caused, we could barely get our knightmares back to base. I mean yeah we have 12 Sunderlands and tones of weapons but it would have been nice if he gave us a heads-up. Besides, Naoto would be happy to see you in university, seeing how he had to drop out." Ohgi told her as he looked at an old picture of himself, Kallen and her deceased elder brother, Naoto, the two of them sharing both hair and eye colour, the red hair of their father and the blue eyes of their mother.

"Forget about Shinjuku for now, I'll be in touch." Ohgi told her after snapping himself out of the memories of simpler times before hanging up. She looked at her phone for a couple of seconds thinking if she should call him but ultimately decided against it, however just before she could put her phone away, she received another call. From a number she didn't know.

'Who could it be? Not many people have my number' Kallen thought to herself before she hit accept and brought the phone to her hear.

"Hello?" Kallen greeted, not giving a name till she knew who it was.

"Hey Kallen, it's me Nagata." Nagata said over the phone, still in his bed with Lelouch and a returned Nunnally by his bedside. He was sitting with a tray of food and water in front of him

"Nagata, you're alive?" Kallen gasped

"Jeez, don't make it sound like you had a body or something." Nagata grumbled over the phone.

"Sorry, sorry. It's just that…we tried to find you but all we found-" Kallen started but was interrupted by him.

"Was the burned out remains of the truck right?" Nagata asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, yeah we did." Kallen told him, remembering how sad everyone was when he was declared dead.

"Sorry to worry you guys like that but I wasn't exactly in a position to call, with being a coma and all." Nagata told her as he ate more of the spaghetti and meatballs on his plate, clearly he was enjoying the food but was mannered enough not to talk with his mouth full.

"You were in a coma?" Kallen asked, wondering how that happened.

"Yeah, apparently I'm one tough bastard to have woken up so soon. You're probably wondering how I survived right." Nagata told her with a chuckle as he read his chat, he shouldn't be awake but here he was.

"I am but I didn't want to loom a gift horse in the month." Kallen responded as she didn't want to ask the question till he was with them again.

"You remember that voice from Shinjuku?" Nagata asked, instantly giving her a clue of what happened.

"You mean he got you out?" Kallen asked, she didn't think the voice was anywhere near there.

"They actually, they found the truck and dragged my half dead ass out of there, apparently, he put some bomb on the truck and it killed two Brits in the blast…I heard how things went down, how is everybody?" Nagata told her before he asked the question he had been dying to ask all day.

"We lost some good people, it's just the core group now. We did score some Sunderlands and were thinking of handing them over to Kyoto since they could give more use to it then we could." Kallen told him sadly as they had to bury a lot of good people, even if they scored a massive victory against the imperials.

"I'm glad you didn't, the voice wants then for his own uses, he knows a good tech crew who can work on them and upgrade them. Listen he wants to speak to you for a bit that cool?" Nagata asked as he saw Lelouch gesture to the phone.

"Yeah, yeah put him on." Kallen told him, she waited a moment as she heard the phone changed hands before she heard another voice, this one not sounding as distorted as the one in Shinjuku but sounding close enough to match them.

"Glad to hear you're still among the living, Q1" Lelouch told her over the line.

"It's you." Kallen said, she didn't think she would hear from the voice so soon.

"As your friend already told you, we picked him up and have treating him ever since, he was the only one with a means to contact you so I couldn't call and tell you earlier." Lelouch informed her as to why Nagata and he had been radio silent.

"N-no, it nothing, thank you by the way, we already lost too many people." Kallen told him, glad she was wrong about one death.

"Please, don't thank me. I only helped out a potential ally, nothing more. By the way, I can assume that you are in the settlement, correct?" Lelouch asked her.

"Yeah, ear the shopping district actually." Kallen confirmed for him, getting an 'hmm' as a response.

"Have you heard the rumours as of late, I'm been stuck in for the past couple of days." Lelouch asked her, he wished to hear what the common folk were talking about.

"Who hasn't, even here people can't stop gossiping about it. You can't wipe out that many troops and keep it quiet. Clovis has been silent as well lately, you have anything to do with that?" Kallen told him, having already heard Rivalz talk about how the Military had to 'replace a whole load of faulty equipment'.

"Well of course I do, I'm the one that put a bullet in his pretty little head after all." Lelouch told her, his voice coming out as smooth and smug as one could.

"You killed him?! You killed him?" Kallen screamed before she remembered where she was and asked again in a softer voice.

"Unfortunately no, I just heard that he in fact survived the shot but has been rendered brain dead as a result." Lelouch told as Nunnally was able to hear he was still in the ICU and not a morgue, dead to the world.

"Well he's as good as dead either way." Kallen told him, she didn't think he would last long in the imperial court if he wasn't even responsive.

"Your right there but I feel we need to talk, face to face." Lelouch told her over the phone, sounding like he was moving.

"You're serious?" Kallen asked, she didn't think he would show his face after all that secrecy back in Shinjuku.

"I like to the faces of the people I make deals with, can you gather your friends for a meeting on the 2nd of April?" Lelouch asked.

"Yeah, I can do that." Kallen answered.

"Good, head to the Tokyo tower around 10 that evening, there will be a limo waiting for you so don't bring too many people. And bring those who can keep it down, don't need people seeing 'elevens' moving around the settlement do we." Lelouch told her before he cut the call, leaving her to think about what she just got herself into.

"…Guess I know what I'm doing Monday." Kallen said to herself before she pocketed her phone and left the roof to head for class.

 **ANNND DONE! That is chapter 7 my readers, as I promised, this wasn't a fighting chapter and I used it to show you all the consequences of the battle, C.C is up to her usual self as she told Marianne what she knows but as I already said, Lelouch isn't as revenge driven…okay he is and more BUT!...he's more controlled and mellow about it most of the time, like Roy Mustang of the FMA Brotherhood series and the Count of the Count of Monte Cristo anime. Another thing here that was you already know. Once Operation: Dishonour starts, it will be impossible for Cornelia to actually go through with her Saitama gambit as she did in series as the fallout from Clovis' actions would still be very present, preventing her from doing something similar lest the commoners get pissed, and pissed off commoners and nobility are not the best of combos (Just ask the French nobles with no heads). Another thing is that they story will take place over time in their universe as although Lelouch has some soldiers and materials on hand, it pales in comparison to what Nelly can bring to the table. The next chapter will have more scenes from Ashford, Rai and how the ASEEC unit is doing and if I can fit it in, the race day where of course, Milly dragging everyone to in hopes of seeing her long lost friends. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.**


	8. A day at the track

**This is the eighth Chapter of The Force Unleashed and as stated in the last chapter, this one will focus less on lulu and co and more on other characters. When I wrote the whole race scene, I was watching some old walkthroughs of Motorstorm: Pacific Rim and Need for Speed: Most wanted as the race could fell as real and chaotic as I wanted it to. Also, depending on this chapter goes, it may or not include his meeting with Kallen's group as that takes place the following Monday, the 30** **th** **in this story is a Friday. Without further wait, here it the chapter, enjoy!**

 **Chapter 8: A day at the track**

 **March 30th 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11/Japan:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

(Ashford University)

"Hmm, so you retuned after all Kallen." Milly observed as Kallen walked back into the council meeting after stepping out to make a call. Everyone was once again present with Nina by the computer in the corner and everyone else was seated by the large table in the centre of the room

"Sorry about that, I had to stepped out and make a call." Kallen apologised as she took her seat and started working again.

"Really, to whom?" Shirley asked as Kallen mostly talked t0 her friends at school.

"To my doctor, it was about an appointment I might to have in Monday." Kallen lied as she gave the usual story.

"That's a bummer, I thought you were getting better." Rivalz said as he thought since high school, her health had been improving.

"I am but you can never be too sure with your health and all." Kallen lied once more, she was sadden by how easily she could lie to them as even with them being Britannian, they weren't bad people…maybe Nina but the girl didn't have the confidence to harm a fly.

"Well, if it's really necessary…" Nina added as she focused on the paperwork on her own plate.

"Alright you guys, that enough. Let's not get side tracked here. We don't come up with a fix for the club activities budget, there won't be any money left." Milly ordered as she pointed to the large pile of papers that needed to be dealt with.

"And if that happens…." Nina murmured.

"The Equestrian society will be pissed and charge in here on horseback…again." Rivalz reminded them with a smile as that was a crazy day for them.

"Rivalz, I'll tell you to be a more serious council member…if that didn't already happen." Milly scolded just as a member of the equestrian society rode by the window, giving them the evil eye before riding off.

"You know, it would have been nice of you to remind of this mess a day ago!" Shirley said as she lifted the rather large amount of papers she alone had to deal with.

"I would a say to say a day later, then we could give up." Rivalz joked as he didn't want to do all this work and wanted to head home early.

"GUTS!" Milly yelled, getting everyone to jump in their seats with Nina almost falling off hers.

"Are you trying that guts spell again, you've been using that since high school." Rivalz asked as this wasn't something new but with the unpredictability of Milly, even after years of it, she still managed to get them with it.

"Because it's been working since high school and I want you people to start putting your all into this." Milly said as she wiggled her finger to them all.

"I don't think your magic is gonna work madam president." Kallen mentioned as although she found Milly enduring, dealing with her can leave you feeling tired.

"Actually it got me going madam president." Shirley jumped it cheerfully.

"Yes, supple and willing, that want I like." Milly said as she turned to face the orange haired girl.

"I trained hard in in the swim team." Shirley boasted, proud of her fit physical person.

"That's not what I was getting at." Milly said.

"Hmm?" Shirley responded as she didn't catch on yet to what Milly was getting at

"You're a ten, from what I've seen in the girls locker room, you really filled out in all the right places have we?" Milly asked, eyeing up the girl's chest which was a bit bigger compared to their high school days.

"Oh-oh" Rivalz joined in with a smirk and a laugh.

"What are you talking about you prev?!" Shirley yelled as she covered up her chest with her arms as she blushing up a storm.

"Madam President, weren't we doing something tomorrow?" Kallen asked, coming to the rescue of her friend and redirecting Milly's attention to her.

"Oh yes, we are, Rivalz here bumped into a rather interesting character the other day and we want to go see him race." Milly confirmed as she had already pick out her outfit for the special day.

"Race?" Kallen asked, all she have been told was be available on Saturday and not why.

"Yes, our mystery rider is a motorcyclist and there a big race tomorrow to see who qualifies to move up from the Tokyo circuit and move up Kanto circuit." Milly told as she really was interested in seeing the man she hoped (knew) to be Lelouch win big like that.

"I thought the old racing leagues and circuits were banned." Kallen asked, now very interested as she used to follow the racing leagues before Japan fell and they were banned. To hear that were back was something of a good think to her. After-all she did want to be a race car driver growing up.

"Well they were but they were brought as Area 11 has a very active street racing scene so Clovis decided to bring them back to help keep control it." Rivalz told her as he liked to keep track of these kinds of things.

"Did it work?" Nina asked, wondering if the idea proposed worked.

"Hmmmm, mostly, last a heard there are still a lot of street racing downtown and in Hiroshima settlement. Anyway, I want to go see Lelouch win it and move up." Rivalz answered her before changing the subject.

"Rivalz, I've been meaning to ask but, what comes after the Kanto circuit?" Shirley asked, she was interested in this new topic.

"Well after you qualify in the Kanto circuit, you automatically enter a new circuit with three racers from each region, meaning that there are always 27 other races. If top three go on to represent Area 11 in the Pacific Cup." Rivalz told her with stars in his eyes.

"I heard about that. It was televised last year right?" Milly asked as she remembered her cousins talking about something like it.

"Oh year, it's one of the biggest motorcycle racing events in Britannia seeing how races from Area 12, 11, 10 and 9 compete." Nina told them as she quickly searched it up on the net. At the news of how big this race could be for Lelouch, they all widened their eyes in shock.

"It's that big?" Kallen asked, fully involved in this.

"Yup, but at that stage, only the top spot is awarded with a trophy and a cash prize of 4.5 million pounds." Rivalz revealed with a grin as he saw Kallen and Shirley nearly fall out of their seats at the amount.

"4.5 Million!" Shirley yelled, that was more than her father made in three whole years by a long shot, and he was recently promoted to a position where her mother and he moved into a brand new house.

"Yup, the event is televised and from what I know, they make around 19 million profit from the event so that much prize money isn't much." Rivalz told them as the event tended to be watched on most stations.

"Wait, so you're saying that at that point, 12 rider race for 4.5 million pounds?" Kallen asked, she could use that kind of money for her group seeing how her step-mother keeps tracks of her finances.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Rivalz told them before they all got back to work to complete the budget lest they all pay for it.

(Later)

After they all finished their paperwork, the members of the student council were discussing their little matters as they made their way to class. When they reach there, they heard of the boys say something "They used old pacific war era explosives?" at this they all looked to the small laptop that was sitting on the table, it was tuned to a news broadcast.

"Man that's freaky, Shinjuku only 30 minutes from here." The boy next to the first mentioned as the small group listen in to the news.

"Oh my God, I heard lots of explosions from that direction the other day, it must have been the bombs." The girl standing nearby added as she placed her input.

"Are they saying anything else about it?" the first asked, wanted to know more of the current situation.

'Hey! Check out the footage of those dead elevens." The group of buys watching on another laptop further in the class called out.

"Urg! Don't look!" one of the girls shouted back as she didn't want to look at corpses.

'Wait, I get that they would clever up the fact that they got their asses handed to them after they tried to commit a genocidal purge, but why cover up Clovis' vegetable state? Sooner or later people will notice since that arrogant pomp ass prince loved the spotlight and they'll pick up the fact he hasn't been in the media lately.' Kallen thought to herself as Spider-1 had confirmed he shot the prince, to her it made no sense to hide that, even if it was to fend off the predictable rise in rebel activities in Japan. Maybe they wrecked more equipment in Shinjuku then they thought, after all calling in more from Area 12 would make noise, noise people will notice.

(With Rai)

"Is Professor Lloyd always like this?" Rai asked Cecile as they watched Lloyd work over the repairs and upgrades to the Lancelot, the man hasn't slept much in the last few days since the battle, truth be told, Rai was only spared death from burial as the Lancelot dug itself out before the EMP hit, he was out of the rank at the time but by the time he got back, the Lancelot was down to just 21% power. And ever since Lloyd saw his creation in such a state he had been working non-stop, all the while cursing up a storm.

"Just when the Lancelot is damaged, other than that…he's…better to be around." Cecile told him as she worked on a computer terminal.

"Speaking of which, Cecile, did you analyse the data we got about that mysterious model?" Lloyd suddenly asked, scaring both as that was the most he said to another person in the past 13 hours. None the less Cecile told him what he wanted to know.

"Yes I did but due to the strange EMP it released, some of the files were corrupted." Cecile reported as she tried to fix the damage to the files they were able to recover after the battle.

"Fantastic, first the spider has the audacity to harm my greatest creation and then it goes and destroys some of the only clues we have on it." Lloyd asked, eager to know what he needed to know to make the Lancelot even better so it can defeat that giant robot spider.

"Harm?" Rai asked, he was slightly put off by the fact Lloyd treated his knightmare like a child.

"He takes the Lancelot very seriously and I was able to recover some of the data we got off the Lancelot's hard drive and out own. We so far know that the Spider Knightmare that will now be designated as Tang-1 is indeed faster than a Gloucester which as a top speed of 140km/h." Cecile told him before she turned to Lloyd to give her statement.

"So the Lancelot is faster it can go 165km/h. What's Tang-1 's acceleration speed?" Lloyd asked as he took out of blowtorch to cut off some bits of broken armour.

"Going by data recovered from the destroyed knightmares, visual evidence of the footage shot by the Lancelot, we can place the acceleration at around 0-60km/h in anyway from 4-2.3 seconds." Cecile reported as she read over the report she complied earlier.

"That is fast, that's pretty close to the Lancelot's of 2,2 seconds. That would explain how it was keeping up with by baby." Lloyd had to admit, that was pretty fast.

"What about that armour? It tanked shots meant to take out APCs and tanks." Rai asked as he remembered watching the videos of the Tang taking shots designed to destroy tanks like they were nothing.

"That we don't know, all we do know that the E.U has something like that in development but it could only be mounted in heavy tanks and land bases due to weight issues." Cecile told then as they had known about the E.U's project for a while.

"And going by the armour we recovered, the Tang-1 and Tang-2 both fire high powered tungsten tipped explosive rounds." Lloyd said as he read over the report of the rounds recovered.

"Do we have anything that can counter that?" Rai asked as he knew that those types of rounds could destroy the Lancelot as it was now.

"Afraid not, although the Lancelot also had tungsten armour, that was designed to be effective against regular rounds and small arms. We may need to design the armour plating along with the blaze." Cecile told him.

"Rai, from your own experience, what would say about it?" Lloyd asked, he heard that pilots always had the best advice for knightmare adjustments seeing how they were the ones that used them.

"Well…I would say that the pilot themselves can make it dance and dare a say, might be able to do the same with the Lancelot, keeping track of those legs must be tiring." Rai told him as he sat down at a desk to help them with a load of paperwork.

"I agree there which begs the question, why would you design something with eight legs when two work just fine?"

"Maybe stability as blowing off one legs wouldn't be as damaging as with other models."

"I don't think so, you saw that armour, if they were scared of something blowing off legs, and they must have been thinking tanks and not knightmares."

"If that's the case then it would have the power needed to storm small bases and leave nothing in its wake before reinforcement got there."

"That would be troubling, speaking of troubling has anyone heard anything about the prince?"

"No sir, the higher-ups have been keeping quiet about it."

"Maybe they don't want to spread rumours with things as they are, after all 60 knightmares being destroyed is a big thing."

"How many knightmares are in Area 11 anyway?"

"There are around 300 more. Losing so many at once would be a very bad thing for the rebels to know about."

"Yes, even if there are hundreds of tanks, APCs, IFVs and air support, a blow to the knights will surely be bad for us."

"Why so few knightmares, aren't they the premier machines of the empire?"

"Because contrary to popular believe, knightmares are harder to manufacture then most armoured units and cost more. Combined with the fact that the country has been expanding as of late, they can't afford to place more troops to guard the areas."

"But why are the imperial forces spread so thin?"

"Because as long as we keep winning, it gives off the impression that they are larger than they are. Knightmares like the Lancelot are being develop to bridge the cap of quantity with quality."

'Yes, but only as long as we control area 11. If whoever he went up against caused even more chaos here…we may have to deal with the Chinese and Euro's at the same time. Lady Enneagram, what would you do?'

"Cecile, be a dear and inform our benefactor of the present situation since we're gonna need to purchase new parts and then some."

"[sigh] yes Lloyd, Rai, could you please continue that paperwork. I have a feeling that there's going to be more coming."

"Sure thing Miss Cecile."

 **March 31th 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Holy Britannian Imperial Homeland:**

 **Pendragon Imperial Palace:**

"Are you sure of this Marianne?" Emperor Charles asked the Knight of Six Anya Alstreim, but in reality he was speaking with his supposedly dead wife Marianne. She had requested some private time to speak to him and to that end he even dismissed Lord Bismarck as though he was a trust worthy man, he knew how he would react to seeing Marianne again.

"Of course Charles, I wouldn't tell you if I wasn't sure." Marianne/Anya told him as she stood in front of the throne. She had just reported what C.C had told her.

"So…our children have return to the light of day, have they?" Charles mused aloud, he had been concerned as to where they run off to seeing how the order and the OSI couldn't find a trace of them. Now they reappear in Area 11 of all places, there had to be a reason, he remembered his son too rational to just go somewhere on a whim.

"Charles, what are to do against them? If C.C is to be believed, they haven't been sitting around these last ten years and now they're ready to go to war with us." Marianne asked him, she didn't want to fight her babies, not like this.

"Yes, this is troubling indeed. What were the losses Clovis suffered in Shinjuku?" Charles asked, he needed to know how much they lost to know how good their son was.

"Clovis' lost quite a few of our forces in Area 11. We lost: 43 Sunderlands; 40 tanks along with most of their crews; 43 APCs and all their crews; All 30 of his attack VTOLs and 356 ground troops. Do you know the cost it would take just to replace all that in an Area that was supposed to have quiet?" Marianne asked him but didn't even give time to respond before Marianne through her hands into the air in exhaustion. "Tens of millions that's what." She finished. She knew he wouldn't be a happy camper if her son ever returned to the scene but for God's sake, most kids just wrecked the family car, not this!

"Yes, I just got off the phone with Margrave Jeremiah about the matter. Clovis is brain dead at present. Lelouch apparently didn't finished the job." Charles told her as he had finished his call with the margrave not so long ago, no doubt it must be late night in Area 11. Of course he already knew of the events in Shinjuku but at least the man had the courage to report it.

"I don't think so, that was a fluke since there aren't much shooters who can say that they can shot you in the head in such a fashion that you survive, brain dead but alive." Marianne responded, it was almost impossible for plan someone surviving a gun-shot to the head. That was pure luck.

"Hmmmm, it would be prudent to send troops from Area 12 and Area 10 to help fill in the gaps with man power. What is the status of Cornelia campaign in the Middle Eastern Federation?" Charles asked as he read a review of the last campaign battle she has won there.

"She should be done destroying the last vestiges of their armed forces in about a month and two weeks. That desert is a big place to hide in after-all." Marianne reported as even though the MEF had been beat, their remaining forces still fought even though they had nothing to gain but then again, they had nothing to lose either.

"We will send her along with her men to Area 11 to meet Lelouch, also…" Charles started before he looked over a particular detail in the report.

"Yes my darling?" Marianne asked, it wasn't often he would lose himself to thought to it must be important.

"Have the Knight of Nine as well." Charles said. It chose in knights surprised Marianne before a smile broke out across her face.

"Lady Enneagram. Well that would be interesting. I can't remember a time when she wouldn't tease little Nelly." Marianne said to herself as she left the throne room to carry out the orders.

(Mid-morning, Area 11 on that same day)

"Well, here we are people, Race day!" Milly called out as she led the student council into the stadium. She herself was wearing a with the rest of the council, she however went the extra distance and wore a pit crew inspired suit which revealed a little too much skin. Shirley was wearing a green knee length dress with a white jacket with green sleeves and white heels. Kallen was wearing white slim sleeveless fitting dress shirt with grey carpi pants and red heels, she was also wearing a red jacket over her shirt. And Rivalz was wearing a black shirt with blue jeans and white shoes, he chose to wear the most plain of clothes for this. (Nina was wearing the same thing she does in the hotel jacking episode)

It was the Saturday that Rivalz and Milly were looking forward to but for different reasons. For Rivalz he wanted to see his new friend take home the gold, for Milly she wished to see an old friend alive and well. The race track one an old one, that was for sure but it was till packed with people as music was being performed in the stage in the middle. Even on the way here, they saw the parking lot nearly full. They eventually found there seat near the middle and sat down. The track itself had been modified to include ramps, jumps, obstacles and additional patch that went underground as well as over the track. The only reason the audience could see the all the tracks undisturbed was due to the numerous cameras places around the course.

"So, what number is he?" Milly asked after they found their seats but she found with the roar of the crowd, she needed to be a bit louder than usual.

"I have him registered as number 90! He going to be the one wearing black and purple!" Rivalz yelled back, used to the noise level at these things.

"I…I don't think…this was a good idea." Nina muttered as she saw across the way that there were loads of elevens present.

"Nina, relax, this a race, cool your jets and take a break. They're the ones who can't stop to smell the roses." Milly told her as she wrapped her arm around the shy girl.

"I can't believe so many people showed up for this!" Kallen said as she thought people would be doing other things today, this place was packed and last she checked, it had a max capacity of 17 000 people.

"Can you blame them? This place is awesome!" Rivalz said as he joined in the cheering as the performer in stage finished his piece.

"Shhh, the racers are coming out!" Shirley hushed them as she wanted to hear them clearly.

" **Alright ladies and gentlemen, we would like to thank our opening act Adam Jensen for performing his hit song. The Mystic but now it's time to meet the 19 racers who have proven to be the best the Tokyo circuit has to offer. BUT remember that only top five will qualify for the Kanto circuit and the right to move to new heights of racing. So I got one question for yer: ARE YOU READY!** " The presenter asked over the numerous speakers as the stage was cleared and prepared for the next act.

"YEAH!" The crowd yelled back at him, the excitement in the air.

" **Man, maybe they aren't that much people here, I said-ARE YOU READY?!** " The presenter asked again, even louder than before.

"YEAH!" The crowd screamed back, their excitement now overflowing as even Nina cracked a smile at the positive energy in the air.

" **Alright, let's get this party going big, started us off is the current 3** **rd** **best in Tokyo with the number of 23 Lucas Gregor!** " The presenter begun as he introduced the first of many racers. This one wearing yellow and blue.

(As this was going on)

While the racers were introduce to the audience, one was till in his trailer along with his bike. He was in there psyching himself up for the coming battle, not battle of words of weapons but a different one.  
One that will be fought on the track, one that will be fought with speed and skill, determination and risk taking. Lelouch was getting ready for the biggest race his ever been in.

"Okay, here we go. It's time to focus." Lelouch said to himself over the roars of the crowd.

"One winner-me, 18 losers-everyone else. No excuse, only victory." Lelouch muttered as he flexed his arms and legs.

"You're the son of Marianne, the Flash, the knight of six. Losing isn't in your blood." Lelouch said as he checked that his helmet and other safety gear was ready and fit for this battle. The roars of engines drumming against the steel walls of his trailer. He was interrupted when a he heard a knock in the door.

"Hey Impulse! You ready?" One of his pit crew asked. He response was a simply one.

Oh Impulse's ready." Lelouch said as she rode his bike into the light of day, enjoying the cheers from his fans as he revved his cycle, the electric noise sounded so beautiful and powerful at the same time. He soaked up the attention for a moment while they read out his number.

" **Racers, to the starting line!** " The presenter called out. Lelouch and the rest quickly took up their starting position with him in the third row behind the fist 4. As they were doing this, the stage had been prepared for the next musical act which judging from their attire were a rock band.

" **Racers, on your marks!** " The presenter called out slowly, milking the energy of the crowd as even he could see that some were psyched for this.

" **3** " The racers started their engines and geared up.

" **2** " They all revved their bikes as they braced for it as the guitarist of the band on stage did a quick rift before they started.

" **1** " The song Move Through me started to play over the speakers

" **GO!** " At that signal, the riders were off, speeding from zero to sixty in a matter of seconds before they were all gone. They had to over 4.3km worth of track and 9 laps, making this a 38km race.

Not that he had a problem with this.

" **Welcome to the Tokyo Circuit finals viewers, I'm David Cutlass and with me is fellow commentator Igor Carmen. We are at the beginning of what could be a historic day for racing here in Area 11.** " One of the commentators said as he introduced himself and his partner over the speakers.

" **David, my blood pressure through the roof right now, if this race is as exciting as those that came before it, they're gonna have to carry me out on a stretcher!** " Igor said as he was literally bouncing in his seat.

" **Right you are Igor and all the excitement is because of three riders today. These three are tied for the season point's lead and the right to crown the best on Tokyo**." David said as the cameras focused on the three lead racers, one of them being a black and purple bike, another was blue and the last was silver and gold.

" **Wearing his signature number of 12, does the king have it in him to qualify for one last Kanto cup before he retires?** " David asked as they audience saw the silver and gold bike pull into the first place and keep it.

" **Rick Clinton has been the Barclays banking group's golden boy for years. Can he win them one last Pacific cup?** " Igor asked as the crowd cheered when Rick took a ramp to the side and pulled off backflip before landing back into first, cutting off the blue rider behind him.

" **Right behind him in points and in the race, we find proud 36 Stanley Garrison. He has been chasing that cup for the last three years and as always he's hot on the tail of the king. This is supposed to be his year this year but he and pretty much everyone else here, didn't count on, number 90 otherwise known as Rev Impulse!** " David said as the cameras all focused the Black and purple cycle as it bobbed and weaved through the mass of other bikes, climbing in rank as the race went on. Already there were 2 thirds done with lap one.

" **Your right there David, I don't anyone was expecting this, the rookie came out of nowhere, financing his own team and equipment, people thought he wouldn't last long an electric bike but look at him now. The 3** **rd** **best in all of Tokyo in only eight days!** " Igor said as he and the rest of the crowd watched a clip of Rev's previous race wins with some of them being truly amazing. Kallen couldn't stop and gaze at the way he moved through the others, like rain through the cracks of pavement.

" **Will he be the first rookie to win the Tokyo circuit? That's up to the racers folks**." Igor asked aloud, getting many to quickly place their bets in one of the three, including Rivalz who placed a bet of 2,000 pounds on his new buddy, something Shirley chastised him for.

" **The legend, the runner-up and the rookie. Three riders, one champion's cup!** " David called out before the action was shifted back to the racers.

(With the teens)

"Well they sure know as to get the blood pumping!" Milly cheered as they watched the race go on.

"This is why I never miss a race!" Rivalz agreed with her as he ate some popcorn he had brought.

"Aren't all those ramps and jumps dangerous?" Nina asked as he saw a rider do a double backflip and barely stick the landing.

"That what make this more entertaining with regular racing. All the jumps means more showboating, more showboating means more risk!" Rivalz told her.

"And the biggest risks often have the best reward" Kallen finished as she was adsorbed into the sport, never taking her eyes off the action for a moment.

"That's the idea Kallen, man I really want to see how the bike works, he's already hit 220km/h at the loom if it!" Rivalz commented as they watched the go on for a few more laps.

(With Lelouch)

The race bad been going on for a while now and last he saw them pass the starting line, he knew that they were on the 7th lap. He had been doing good so far as he went from 6th place in the beginning to 4th place so long. He would have been 1st of the competition wasn't so tough. He was in the middle of fierce two on two battle with 4th place, number 28 if he remembered correctly. He knew this guy was good since he had a counter for everything of his attempts to get past him. When he tried taking the inside, he was there, he tries taking the outside, he was there. He was running out of ideas to pull.

" **Hey Rev, take the next ramp into the high road, it harder but shorter by around 91m, take it and it will put you ahead of him**." His crew chief by the name of Claus Warwick said over the radio. Lelouch looked up and saw the ramp fast approaching, placing his trust in the man, he went for it.

" **Got it Warwick**." Lelouch responded as he took the route. Immediately he could see why everyone ahead avoided it, the route was very narrow and had some sharp turns which if failed would have led to him falling 12m straight down. But he did everyone perfectly and soon from above like some badass angel on wheels, he landed in front of not only 4th place but 3rd as well. Putting him in 2nd. He didn't care though for it or the commentators stating how skilled he was, he only saw 1st and he wanted it.

He stayed on first tail for another couple of minutes as he chased after the reigning champ, never being more than 10m behind him. The closer he got, he saw that he was running out of time so he pushed the bike 255km/h. at this speed he knew he was moving faster than the champ, he had did his homework and saw that Rick never went above 250km/h even in races where it would have helped so he knew he had an advantage.

But what the champ lacked in speed, he more than made up for in skill. In the final leg of the leg, Rick did the unthinkable. He took the biggest ramp on the track into the high road. This was a bad move as even if this shorten the leg from 2,000m to just 1,900m and boasted your speed by 5km/h, it was a route purposely built to collapse when something moved across it. 'He's mad!' Lelouch thought to himself as Rick disappeared into the route.

Never the less, he went on with himself the only one in the lead with 2nd place Stanley just behind him. They were in the clear in the last 50m till the completely unexpected happened.

From the falling wreckage of the alternate route, Rick come crashing out like a bat out of hell, he landed right in front of Lelouch and not a moment too soon as that was the moment when the crossed the finish line. Making Rick once again first place, Lelouch 2nd and Stanley 3rd.

" **I can't believe he did that.** " Lelouch said as he slowed his cycle to a stop to watch as the press swarmed over Rick, clearly wanting a word from the still reigning champion.

" **I don't think anyone did but there's a reason he's still the champ. Still 2** **nd** **place for a rookie in the Tokyo cup isn't something to scoff at either.** " Claus said over the radio, watching the same thing from the pits.

" **If I can't even win here, how the hell am I gonna win the Kanto region?** " Lelouch asked angrily as he needed this kind of win of he hoped to go against the best and come out on top.

" **Hey kid, don't beat yourself over it, just work harder and train harder. You have more skill than you know.** " Claus assured him as he went over the tool box to start getting them ready, the rest of the up till now silent pit crew doing the same.

" **Yeah, yeah you're right, thanks for the pep talk chief, I'll meet you back at the pit.** " Lelouch said as he drove off to his pit for repairs and maintenance.

(Later)

" **I can't believe the race we just had, Igor.** " David said as the three top riders were gathered on the victory podiums on stage with Rick standing on the tallest one while holding the Tokyo cup. A large cup made of silver and wooden stand.

" **I know what you mean David. No one could have seen that coming, I mean we all know the champ Rick isn't to be messes with but that last risk really paid off.** " Igor commented as the confetti shot off along with the flashed of the cameras.

" **Right you are Igor, now Rick has placed himself as the top racer in all of Tokyo area, meaning his is the ace on the hole for the Kanto.** " David as the three riders waved to the crowd while keeping their helmets on.

" **And here they are, the five skilled riders who will go to represent Tokyo area.** " Igor said as the rider individual stats appeared on the screen above the stage.

 **1** **st** **Place: Rick Clinton 95pts**

 **2** **nd** **Place: Rev Impulse 92pts**

 **3** **rd** **Place: Stanley Garrison 91pts**

" **This was an amazing race folks, we hope to see you in two months at the Kanto cup, thank you and good afternoon**." David said before he cut his mic. This was the call for people to leave as numerous swarms started to leave the stands with some going down to the track to get in some pictures.

(Later)

It was coming to evening as the sun begun to set. Almost everyone was gone except a few here and there. Lelouch was with his crew near the civilian parking lot but still firmly in the marked no entry zone. Along with them Alice, Nunnally and Suzaku. Alice had wanted to come and watch so she stayed with Suzaku who sat in a VIP lounge watching the event. They were in the middle of paying the pit crew for their services. He had time to change into some civilian civvies while they loaded the truck with his equipment.

"And…here you go, 13,000 pounds for you services." Claus said as he paid them the fee. The head crewmember took the cash and placed it into their briefcase.

"Thank you, we hope you come to us again for you pit crew needs." The crewmember said as he shook their hands and left with his men. Leaving them beside a truck with all their gear inside.

"Well, that was an interesting day." Suzaku said as he read the news about it on his phone, already the race had 31,000 views and it had only ended a couple of hours earlier.

"Yeah it was, big bro, you didn't tell me you could race like that." Alice cheered as she practically jumped side to side in excitement.

"Well, you never asked little one." Lelouch told her as she crouched down and pat her head.

"I'm not little!" Alice yelled, her pouting face so cute that everyone laughed.

"Oh yes you are, but look at it like this, you can still fit in the jungle gym when I cant." Suzaku told her to help cheer her up.

"Moving on…what are out plans for the night?" Nunnally asked them.

"I was thinking we go home and watch a movie or something, you?" Suzaku suggested.

"Maybe go out to a restaurant?" Claus asked.

"Nay, most of them serve the same old thing." Lelouch said as he had been to most of them and they mostly serve brit food, and not even the good kind. What kind of good serving brit restaurant doesn't serve good'ol fish and chips?

"Hey! Lelouch!" A voice called out, drawing their attention to the barricade for a group of teens were standing being held back by security.

"Who's calling my name?" Lelouch asked as he looked over the group.

"Over here!" Rivalz said as he pointed to himself, seeming to have heard the question.

"You know him?" Suzaku asked him, this wouldn't be the first fan that found out his name but a rare one none the less.

"Yeah, I do run into him the other day. Hey security, let them through." Lelouch said as he waved the security to let them in. After they were allowed access, they made their way over with Rivalz having a dumb smile on his face that just seemed infectious.

"You did great out there." Rivalz told him as he and the rest got to them.

"Why thank you, but I didn't get to dethrone the king." Lelouch said with a chuckle as it seemed that Rivalz was a boy of positive energy.

"Don't worry about, you'll get him next time." Shirley told him, having had a great time watching the event along with the rest of them.

'Maybe, by the way. Who are your friends, the blonde looks familiar but I can't place it." Lelouch asked as he vaguely recognised Milly but he couldn't place it.

"Oh, these are my fellow council members. The sky one is Nina, miss peppy is Shirley, the lovely redhead is Kallen and the ravishing blonde is Milly." Rivalz introduced them, missing the way Lelouch's eyes widen at the names Milly and Kallen.

"Milly, as in Millicent Ashford?" Nunnally asked, her happy tone evident at the chance to see her friend again.

"That's me Nunna, is been a while since we last saw each other." Milly said as she and Nunnally gave each other a hug.

"Ten years actually, you sure did grow." Lelouch said as he eyes shamelessly caught her bust, seeing she indeed got bigger…in more ways than one. Luckily for him, only Milly noticed, something she capitalised on.

"Oh, Impressed you noticed, you used to be such a muttonhead with girls." Milly teased, purposely leaning forward so he could see more of her bust which made him look away with a small blush.

"I was ten, when will you let that go." Lelouch told her as he tried not to remember that particular day she embarrassed him in front of his mother.

"Big bro, what's a mutton head?" Alice asked, having kept quiet till now but her curious nature made her want to know

"Big bro?" Kallen asked, they looked nothing a like aside from their eyes colours being similar but not the same.

"It's a person who sometimes doesn't notice things around them." Lelouch told her as she took her hand into his and turned the Rivalz and co. "Guys, this is Alice, my adopted sister." Lelouch introduced as Alice waved at them, luckily for Nina, no-one noticed how she stiffen at seeing the clearly Japanese girl. All but Suzaku who narrowed his eyes

"Sister…or daughter?" Milly asked, clearly seeing a chance to make lulu sweat.

"I-I don't k-know what you mean." Lelouch said as he looked anywhere but in Milly's direction, unknowingly giving her what she wanted.

"Oh you do lulu, so spill, you have a girlfriend?" Milly asked him, wanting all the info she could get for further activities.

"Yes he does." Nunnally told them, seeing her chance to get at her brother for his short jokes.

"Nunnally! Not now" Lelouch told her, seeing the light in Milly's eyes at the news.

"AND, she's an older women." Nunnally pressed on, not stopping as the smile on her face only grew.

"Oh-oh, you gotta tell me about that one." Rivalz said as he and Milly dragged Lelouch off to probe him for more.

"Nunnally, I'll get you back for this." Lelouch warned as his head disappeared behind the truck.

"Is he gonna be alright?" Kallen asked, slightly bummed she didn't get to ask more questions.

"He'll be fine, by the way, my name is Nunnally and this here is Suzaku." Nunnally said as she introduced herself and Suzaku to them.

"Pleasure to meet you." Suzaku said as he waved and gave Kallen a handshake, not missing how her grip was stronger than it should be.

"Charmed." Kallen said as she noticed the fire in his eyes, not easily seen but for those who regular engage in combat they can see with one look. And the fire in his was a powerful one.

"Nina, introduce yourself." Shirley said as she pushed the shy girl forward.

"Ah, well…I'm Nina, p-pleased to m-meet you." Nine said before she excused herself and moved away from the group.

"Okay, what's with her?" Suzaku asked, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"She how to say this, shy." Shirley told them as she rubbed the back of her head, honestly, sometimes Nina's people skills were as bad a rocks!

"She gives the word a whole new meaning." Claus mentioned as he went to start up the truck. After this, everyone talked for a bit before Rivalz, Milly and a red faced Lelouch returned to the group. Milly approached them about attending Ashford University. At first they are sceptical about it but after she offered to put Alice in their elementary division and they quickly caved. After this she gave them the address of the three campuses and with the council left. Once they were packed up Lelouch and gang did the same.

"Well, looks like you're gonna be in school." Claus said as he got into the driving cap along with Lelouch as Alice, Suzaku and Nunnally got in the back.

"Yes, appears we are." Lelouch said as they got into the freeway and drove off.

"Will that get in the way of the operational objectives?" Claus asked, not at all worried someone may hear as the cab was soundproof and had numerous static generators to keep anyone from hearing using a bug of some kind.

"I don't think so, according to Milly, as members of the council, we'll be allowed to leave and come as we please so long as we be quiet about it." Lelouch told him as he looked out the tilted windows at the passing building and people going about their day.

"If you say so." Claus said as they drove for another few minutes before Lelouch asked his own question.

"By the way, how is Malcal and the rest? She said that she was able to get in no troubles along with the…equipment." Lelouch asked as he took out an encrypted tablet to check on some things.

"Ah yes, everything is running smoothly on that front. Soon we have 25 working GINNs." Claus told him as he speaking with her on the phone as he and the rest of the youngsters caught up with one another.

"What about the special Burai's?" Lelouch asked once more.

"They will get here on Monday since Hammel is bringing them from Korea. They weren't easy to get just so you know." Claus told him as the smugglers came upon the coast guard and lost some people losing them.

"I paid those smugglers twice what they were worth so they can shove it." Lelouch told him as those very same smugglers demanded twice the regular amount just cause he as Britannian.

"How long do you think the Japan operations will last?" Claus asked. Eager to move on once they had a chance.

"Hard to say, depending on the emperor's response to us and the Chinese reaction. It could be anything from 9 months to up to 2 years." Lelouch told him as he read over the reports about his goods.

"That's a big jap." Claus commented as he took a turn to the residential district.

"Even if our enemies don't know anything about us, we must not assume to know everything about them. I was able to get some interesting shipment manifest from the government bureau servers though." Lelouch told him as she let a small smile came to his face.

"Oh, do tell." Claus asked, wanting to know what his little viruses Lelouch had uploaded into their server had found.

"It's a shipment of knightmares and their parts. Around 20 Sunderlands." Lelouch told him with a grin.

"And you want to steal them?" Claus asked but more said.

"No, destroy them, or at least make it look like that." Lelouch told him as he looked over the schedule for the ship's arrival and started planning the assault.

"Blowing up the ship and leaving one or two wrecks to make it look like you destroyed them all rather than captured most of them." Claus said as he got what the young man wanted, make them think no-one had them so they don't expect you do till it's too late.

"You know me well and yes that the idea. I'll have to sit with Malcal about this later. The place would most likely be heavily guarded" Lelouch told him as he put the tablet away and took out a black king chess piece from his pocket and started playing with it.

"Well, I'm sure that you will succeed…General Lamperouge." Claus said as he revealed the rank that Lelouch had in their little group.

"Why thank you for that vote of confidence…Captain Warwick." Lelouch answered as he started using the force to levitate the chess piece around, marvelling at the thought of the destruction he will bring to the world. Claus looked over and saw the look in his eyes but he didn't care. After all, Lelouch may be the furthest thing from a traditional white knight but he was far better than the snakes and pigs that ran the world as it was now. Yes, he was no white knight of old…not even a black knight either. Oh no….

He was a vengeful black dragon that will destroy the corrupt old world and replace it a better new world.

Of that, he was sure of.

 **And that is chapter 8 people. First of all I know the race part needed work but it was the best I could do so if you have any problems with it, please direct me to a good author who can do a better job than me. Now as you are all wondering, why was Claus acting as his crew chief, well the answers will be revealed in the next chapter and the reason that I gave Lelouch the rank of general is because during the clone wars, Jedi were often given this rank among the grand army of the republic clone forces. Now I can use some of the material from the show again as know Suzaku and Lelouch are in the student council again. Nunnally was obvious that she will be sent to the high school as she is only 16 (I checked the character ages of the date of this story and subtracting the dates of birth, so these are their actually ages by this point). Sweet little Alice is going to South Park Ele-Okay I'm kidding she isn't (Cartman would destroy her emotionally and psychologically in the first week). Hopefully she will make some friends while in an actual school as a thought about Ohgi coming over to tutor her but that idea fell through when I realized he would need free-ish reign of the house to do this. Also I gave the empire a smaller number of knightmares as even the modern day US has less than 2,000 tanks (remember this is the country with the best army in history). So it makes sense that knightmares as good as they are, can't be built on the numbers hinted in the show as it would have severe repercussions for the economy for one, and there is the industrial strain as factories would have to constantly pumped out more to make up for stolen, damaged or downright replace older models (Sunderland to Vincent Ward) which I can't see happening fast as a single tank assembly lines can maybe produce 10-15 in a month. So here you have, hope you like, review if you can and I can't wait to so you all next time.**


	9. The Beginning of the New

**Well here we are with the 9** **th** **chapter of this story. This chapter will have not only the meeting with Kallen's group and return of Nagata as a character but it will also have some other juicy bits such as a little raid on a Britannian harbour. I also will include some basic training for Kallen's groups as he needs soldiers, not rebels as that as one of the many flaws of rebel fighters in Star Wars, not having any formal training so half the time they didn't even know what to do in a situation or how to work some equipment. Lelouch hopes to fix this with training as that is the reason is combat forces aren't very big. It takes time to train them after they have had background checks.**

 **Chapter 9: The Beginning of the New**

 **April 1st 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11/Japan:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

(With Bartley)

"…I see…" Bartley answered, he had just woken up to find himself in a hospital room, confused it took the timely arrival of the doctor to give him a recap of the situation and why he was missing his left arm.

"As stated before General, you're lucky to be alive. All those shots and they somehow missed vital veins and organs. None the less, you will have to use that prostatic arm to replace your right one for the rest of your days and you should take it easy for a few weeks. Organ transplant aren't easy and there have been cases of the bodies of the recipient rejecting them." The doctor told him as he read over the chat.

"And his highness, isn't there-" Bartley tried to ask, everything was happening too fast to process. It couldn't be true.

"I'm afraid there isn't. The bullet damaged his brain too badly for modern medicine to fix, even then the part of the brain that handles memories was shot. It would be foolish to hope that he will be the same person again if he were to somehow recover. I'll leave you with a few minutes." The doctor told him sadly as he knew that the prince' condition wasn't one that will change. For all intents and purposes, he was a dead to the world.

"If it's not too much trouble, may I have my phone?" Bartley asked softly, not being able to lift his head as the weight of the situation came crashing down on him.

"I don't see why not. I'll have a nurse bring it to you soon." The doctor said as he left the room with a soft click of the door. This left Bartley to strew in his own problems.

So…it wasn't a bad dream. His highness…you're…

'I failed you your highness, I know I'm not fit to ask but…I ask that you could only forgive me for this transgression.' Bartley thought to himself as he lost himself to his own regrets. That operation was the reason for this, of that he was sure but he also knew that whoever attacked them wasn't stupid by any means. They moved in the same manner as trained soldiers and not some rebels. Could they be JLF? But why would the JLF intervene then and only then?

He was knocked out of his thoughts when one of the nurses came I and handed him his phone, he quickly thanked her before she left. Once he was alone again, he dialled a number rather than going into contacts. (This was a security measure in case someone got their hands on the phone)

" _Professor."_ Bartley said over the phone as soon as he heard it was picked.

' _General! We didn't know you were awake."_ The man on the other line said, he was clearly surprised to hear from him if his tone was anything to go by.

" _Just woke up, what the situation?"_ Bartley asked, getting straight to the point.

" _Not good sir, the purebloods are snooping around so we hadn't been able to get any work done."_

' _Damn Jerimiah, why now of all times.' "How much do they know?"_ Bartley asked, the last thing they needed was the pureblood looking into this.

" _Not much thankfully. What the next move?"_ The man on the other line asked, clearly nervous that they will be caught at this rate.

" _[sign] As you know full well, the project can't be on without the primary test subject."_ Bartley told him before the man tried to plead their case.

" _But sir, we still have the three secondar-"_ The man tried to tell him but Bartley wouldn't hear it.

" _They won't survive past September without the primary and you know it. So in light of that, the research division will be gutted."_ Bartley told him as he knew as to what he was referring to but as it stands, he knows they were only worth, what four months research data? That wasn't good enough.

" _Yes but-" The man said as he was being told that their work as effectively over._

" _I'll set up a place in Mito, move everything out there when I give you the go-ahead."_ Bartley ordered him as he thought of ways of making that happen without those damn purebloods suspecting.

" _While we were ambushed, the fact remains that Prince Clovis is a vegetable because we weren't able to protect him. I just might be called out to the carpet for this back in the Homeland. More so if the purebloods find anything. If his majesty learns that this experiment has been going on without his knowledge"_ Bartley said, clearly shaking at the prospect of being called out like that, his whole noble family would suffer the consequences of such a thing.

" _Understood sir, we're start immediately"_ the man said before he ended the call, leaving Bartley to wallow in his own thoughts.

(Later with Kallen on route to unknown location)

'Just how long will we drive for? It's been over two hours.' Kallen thought to herself as she and the rest of her group, that being: Ohgi; Inoue; Minami; Sugiyama; Tamaki; Okuda; Takebayashi; Yoshida. Rode in the back of an armoured truck. After they met up at the remains of Tokyo tower, they got into a limo which drove them to a discreet site which then they boarded an armoured car. They have clearly left the settlement and had been moving through the countryside for a while if the rough terrain was anything to go by.

"When do you think we'll stop?" Minami asked as he was clearly un-eased by the long trip.

"Hard to say, we could be going a secret base of theirs." Ohgi said.

"So we're already in?" Tamaki asked, eager to kick even more brit butt like the last time.

"I don't think so, the people we fought with didn't seem to be the type that just 'let you in'." Inoue told him, she didn't think this was the real deal, not yet anyway.

"Then why are we being taken so far from Tokyo?" Okuda asked, clearly a bit frightened by the prospect of being far from home.

"Maybe they to meet secretly, I mean I don't think anyone knew about them till Shinjuku." Sugiyama suggested to them.

"Makes sense, you can't plan for an enemy that you never knew you had. There's also the way he commanded us…that couldn't have been their first time, it was too coordinated." Takebayashi said as he remembered just how they were moved about, that couldn't have just been anyone.

"So their former military? But I thought the JLF had all the veterans of the Japanese forces." Tamaki asked as it was a well-known fact the JLF had all the former military forces.

"Not all of them, they only have the remnants of the army, they have little personal from the navy or the air-force. They could just have been a high ranking police officer as well." Minami said as he remembered having some pals in the Navy who didn't join the JLF, maybe this was them.

"I can say that holds water, I mean you saw the amount of medical supplies they left behind. I can't remember a time when we could treat so many people." Ohgi said, effectively ending the conversation. They drove for another tem minutes before they reach their stop. Once they all climbed out of the armoured car, they were greeted with the wrecked remains of an old Japanese city along with the sounds of gunfire and shouting, getting them all on edge. Everywhere they looked, they saw nothing but destruction. It was clear that no-one still lived here…or they were all wiped out. Kallen was sadden by this as was everyone else, this was one of the reasons that they fought.

"Welcome to Atami." A voice said out of the blue, they all turned to see a group of 5 walking towards them. They were wearing uniforms that had have a black and grey colour scheme.

"And you are?" Tamaki asked, rudely as ever, however if the soldiers cared, they didn't show it.

"Sorry, can't drop names just yet. But you can call me Captain for now. Now if you would follow me." The newly named captain said as he turn on his heel and walked away, leading the group further into the old city.

"Why did you guys bring us all the way here?" Kallen asked at last as the silence was getting to her.

"Atami was almost completely destroyed during the war 10 years ago as it was believed to sheltering Japanese forces which was false. The city had been abandoned for the last 4 years." The captain told them as they walked by a wrecked house with the remains of a fighter jet sticking out of the roof, showing them what happened.

"So?" Minami asked, why it matter so much they were brought here, this wasn't the first time the Britannian reduced cities to ghost towns.

"It makes it a perfect place to train your combat skills, especially in the art of urban warfare but do mind where you go, some areas are literal mine field" The captain told as they walked by an open area which they saw was a large firing range with around 12 people firing their rifles down what might have been 200m ranges, next to that they saw some other troops cleaning their rifles. 'That's explains the gunfire and shouting, this place's a boot-camp' Ohgi thought to himself as they saw more troops being trained or just keeping fit with sports like basketball and tennis.

So?" Leave it to Tamaki to say the dumbest of stuff at the worst of times.

"Wouldn't the Britannians find this place and destroy it again?" Inoue asked as this would be a great target for them seeing how they wouldn't even have to worry about civilian's casualties.

"They can't. All the rails leading here were destroyed by them during the war and the path you took is the only one which doesn't have mines every couple of feet. Added to the fact that there are numerous hidden anti-air placements and early warning radar stations all over the place. It help to that they don't even know we're here." The captain told them as he pointed to a small building which had some radar array on the top of it.

"That's brilliant. Turning the city into a death trap for an invading force." Minami mentioned as he look around now knowing that this would be fortress at the slightest call to arms.

"Yes but before we go further, I must ask. I was told that there were at least two explosive expects in your little group, may they please step forward?" the captain asked as they reached an old government building. The groups looked at each other for a moment before Ohgi gave his consent for two members to step forward.

"That will be us. I'm Takebayashi Kōtarō and my comrade here is Okuda Minami." Takebayashi said as he introduced himself and the young girl standing next to him. He himself was a man of average height with black hair tied into a ponytail. The women was one a slightly below average height with black hair tied into twin pigtails flowing down her back and purple eyes. 'Hmmm, if I didn't know any better, I would say she's related to the general with those features.' The captain thought to himself as he took in their features.

"Interesting, how are you familiar with explosives?" The captain asked them both.

"I myself was planning to become a medical researcher before the war but afterwards chose to turn my smarts to tech like triggers, I. that sort of stuff. Okuda here was a chemical prodigy and chose to help create the explosive compounds we used." Takebayashi said as he remembered how his dreams were shattered with the invasion.

"Soo, one makes the chemical or compound and the other handles the tech side of it. Impressive." The captain said as he thought about for a while before Okuda asked him her own question.

"Is there a reason that you are asking us this?" Okuda voiced as she didn't know why they wanted their info like that.

"Yes there it but I can't reveal them just yet, not till you talk with the general. His in there. Oh and good luck." The captain said as he stepped aside for them and walked away, presumably to the training grounds. The group was nor scared stiff as they wondered who they were going to meet. Was he tall, scary, smart. They didn't know but after a couple moments, Minami took the first step forward and soon he was followed by the rest of them. As soon as they entered they could see that the building was well maintained as they were working lights and repainted walls. They also saw more of those foot soldiers around on guard duty, each one armed with shotguns or SMGs, shoring they were armed to defend the building and nothing more. There was also an abundance of non-combat personal milling about, they were wearing some sort of uniform (basically they're wearing regular Black Knight uniforms). These were the people who really noticed them as they eyes them when they thought they weren't looking. Tamaki almost made a scene when he noticed that some were Britannians themselves but a well-placed toe stomp from Kallen kept his mouth shut.

They soon arrived at their destination as they were pointed there by one of the staffers. The double door they were greeted by was an imposing one along with the two guards flanking the door. Both were wearing an all-black version of the regular gear along with red googles rather then what they assumed was the standard white. 'They must be real dangerous to have it, the voice must he inside.' Kallen thought to herself as they stood there for a moment. They were beginning to wonder when they'll be allowed access but one of the guards tapped the side of his helmet and spoke into what they assumed was his radio. Once he finished he nodded to his fellow guard and as one, they open the door.  
The inside was an old board room with a large wooden table straight down the table with enough space to sit 15 people. The room itself was sparely decorated as they wasn't much other than the flower pot on the table and the couple painting hanging on the wall. The wall sized window in the back had long been boarded up to keep light from entering and what they assumed to keep people from shutting through them. However their attention was drawn to the three people currently sitting at the table, behind each one was two guards wearing the same armour as the ones outside. The first one was a person wearing the same armour as the regular forces with the addition of a pure grey sash worn over the left shoulder and a white pad with a blue stripe on the right. The second was wearing a dark blue cloak over a grey body glove and black body armour which protected their chest thighs, shins, shoulders and forearms along with a samurai inspired white helmet and mask which included built goggles. The last one a black body glove along with dark purple armour plates covering his: shins, thighs, groin, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms. Along with this black and gold cloak with crimson lining the inside and enormous black cape encircling his head. But what stood out more as the helmet. The spiky black and indigo mask had a long variation of an unknown sigil stretched over the bottom is it. The mask also appeared to be a reflective mirror which they could only assume was transparent on the inside as it was opaque to them on the outside. They didn't see who was under but they no doubt saw them.

"Welcome fellow rebels. I'm glad to see that you made it." Lelouch said as they all stepped in and the door was closed behind them.

"So…was it you?" Ohgi asked, keeping familiar with his surroundings in case they needed to bolt.

"Straight to the point, I like that. And yes, your commander that fine day was none other than myself. My colleague to my left is Lieutenant General S.K and to my right is Lieutenant General L.M. I myself go by General here but you will know me by the name Zero." Lelouch told them as he pointed to left where Suzaku sat and to his right where the unknown person sat.

"Zero?" Minami asked, wondering on the choice of names.

"I have a question for you, what do you think of the current state of things? Are you content to just let the current status quo reign supreme?" Lelouch asked them, not caring for their confusion at his chosen alias.

"Yeah, we get that there's a difference between us and them, a harsh one at that. That why we resist them." Ohgi told him, firm in his beliefs with the rest of his cell agreeing with him.

"You're wrong." Lelouch told him bluntly, watching as they all slightly jump with confusion at his words.

"What?" Ohgi asked, what did he mean just now about his reasons?

"Britannia will never fall to terrorism, compared to the forces and manpower they can bring to the fight, its little better than childish nuisance." Lelouch told them, not bothering to sugar-coat it and just telling them the cold hard facts.

"What! You calling us a bunch of kids?" Sugiyama yelled, not taking kindly to this.

"Not in that sense but yes, I am." Lelouch replied.

"Why you-!" Tamaki growled as he moved to try something but Ohgi stopped him with a hand on the redhead's shoulder. Knowing that the men standing guard would most likely kill him before he could lay a hand on the three seated. This was proved to Kallen when she noticed that one had moved slightly to fire but backed down with a wave of the so called 'S.K'.

"What do you mean by that?" Minami asked, wanting to have a better understanding before they did something they'll regret.

"Tell me, in the last eight months, what have you all accomplished against them other than small time raids?" L.M asked, her, yes her voice not giving anything away of her moon or thoughts, when they group didn't answer she got the answer she was expecting. "No answer, I thought so" she said once more, making them all flinch at the thought that they had nothing to show for themselves.

"You should know thy enemy. Most if not all of your area's rebel groups target small time military installations and civilian targets. All you're doing is making both Japanese and Britannians see you're as nothing more than violent terrorists." S.K told them, his tone showing that he absolutely believed in this notion.

"You must focus your efforts not on the people but the very system itself! You must take up your swords and guns and fight for justice and to protect the innocent." Lelouch told them as he took in their reaction, he wasn't surprised when he saw Kallen stepped forward with a frown that showed she wasn't amused. He and Suzaku talked about it beforehand and came to the conclusion she was the same girl they met with Milly.

"Oh Please, that's all easy enough to say hiding behind those masks, why should we even trust you." Kallen said as she looked at them like they were children.

"She's right!" Yoshida said in agreement.

"Lose the masks." Sugiyama as he wanted to see the faces of these clowns.

"Like we'll do that when we don't trust your motive yet. Besides going by your own words, you refuse to do the right thing because it isn't easy?" L.M said as she waved them off.

"Don't put words in my mouth!" Kallen yelled, how dare she say such a thing about her.

"But that is what you said when you think about it, that is easier to fight against people than fight against the system that allows and encourages these inhuman atrocities." Lelouch cut her off as he told her want he got from her rebuttal.

"You no goo-!" Kallen yelled as this time had to be held back by Inoue who herself wasn't amused.

"When was the last time you celebrated your countries holidays? The last time someone sang your country national anthem? The last time a traditional tea ceremony was held? S.K asked them, making them all cool off and think about his answer.

"When was the last time you had a spring festival, properly celebrated the new years with a good bang?" Lelouch asked them, making them lower their heads in shame as they didn't have an answer to their questions, and it hurt that they didn't.

"Stop." Okuda said as she started to tear up at their brutal words, even if they were all true.

"How many children born in the last 10 years have even been taught what Japan was like 10 years ago?" L.M asked them, not showing any care for their flinches and slow brewing tears.

"Please…" Yoshida started to beg as he looked away with tears in his eyes as he tried to think of an answer but kept coming up blank.

"Then you get our point? That your actions are pointless as they will accomplish nothing and even then the Japan you fight for is long dead. And nothing can bring back the dead no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you cry?" Lelouch asked them as they took some time to gather their wits and return his gaze, each one them just seeing their own defeated faces upon the reflective surface of his mask.

"Then what are we to do, just lay down and die?" Kallen asked them, she didn't want that to be the only solution.

"NEVER!" Lelouch roared scaring the bacon out of them as they gazed at him after he stood up in apparent anger.

"The country of Japan may very well be gone but the people of this beautiful land are very much alive. They need people to fight for them, so that they can call themselves humans once more and hold their heads up high." S.K told them all as he too stood up.

"That is what we hope to do here. Our goal isn't to just defeat Britannia and be the driving force that sees it collapse into ruin, we hope to do the same the same for the world. To establish a government that truly cares for everyone, not just certain groups." L.M added as she too stood, standing alongside her comrades as they met their awed gazes.

"A government where human dignity and justice prevail and where the greed and arrogance that infests the Chinese federation and Britannia is crushed to left to be blown to the seven winds." K.S said as he spoke with contentment in his words as he thought about the current word order.

"A government that treats everyone equally and strives to meet the needs of all under their banner." Lelouch finished as they kept eye contact with the rebels who didn't have a response to this, never before had they heard such words spoken with such passion and conviction. Normally they just heard about some E.U politician spewing similar B.S to win some votes.

"That's why we intervene in Shinjuku, not necessarily to save you but to protect the people caught in Clovis' actions." K.S told them as he and his allies sat down once more.

"Yeah, we heard you nearly killed him." Takebayashi said, speaking for the first time since they got here.

"Keyword is nearly, but we don't have time to send assassins after a vegetable. The point we made when I had you bought here was to offer you a chance to be a part of it." Lelouch said as he didn't particularly care for what happened with Clovis so long as he stayed out of his way.

"But why go so far?" Ohgi asked, this wasn't making any sense to him.

"What's the point in fighting injustice here in Japan if we don't do the same for the Chinese, where 90% of the population lives in crippling poverty and crimes is rampant while their tyrannical leadership continuous to grow in wealth and prestige?" Lelouch answered him as he pointed to the large wall mounted flat screen on the wall (How they didn't notice it till now was a wonder) which showed all three power-blocks highlighted, the union was yellow, Britannia was blue and the federation was red. For the rebels the thought of all those people suffering was a heart-breaking one as the fed was supposed to have the highest population.

"Even then, the government of the E.U is very much the same whereas the so called union is controlled by rival political fractions more concern with what happens in their own short 5 year terms and 'public opinion' then doing what they are supposed. As it stands now, the Union forces is 28% foreign as people fleeing Britannia's genocidal war machine go there under the promise of liberty and rights." L.M revealed to them.

"Isn't that the case?" Inoue asked.

"On paper it is but over 70% of those refuges end up in ghettos similar to that of Shinjuku itself, even those with qualifications such as doctors and engineers. Why? Because these people by the law of the E.U won't have the right to vote till they been citizens for 10 years. So the politicians do nothing as they have nothing to gain from doing so even if that's the right thing to do and the very principle their union was founded." L.M told them as the map of the world on the screen changed to images of the Paris, Rome, Athens and Valencia ghettos ghetto. Shocking them all.

"That's horrible." Okuda breathed as eh covered her mouth with her hands as she couldn't believe these were the living conditions that the few lucky ones who escaped were forced into.

"That's what you get when you have those men and women in power. In fact, many of our troops and NCP (Non-combat personal) are people from these nations that see the evil under the pretty words and propaganda." S.K said as the images changed to that of E.U political rallies whereby those fishing for votes were speaking of liberty just for the show. They were nothing more than spineless cowards in his eyes.

"But…why us?" Kallen asked, why recruit simple rebels to build such a dream.

"Because I have seen that you know this deep down and are willing to fight for this as well. I see people who fight for the people as they should." Lelouch told them as he let some warmth drip into his voice for the first time.

"Do you accept?" K.S asked them, for a while Kallen's group just looked at each other silently deciding their fate before they all came to an agreement.

"Where do we sign in?" Ohgi asked him, the fire in his eyes burning brighter than ever now.

"Excellent, you might want to call home first, you are all going to be trained first." Lelouch told as stood up and shock the man's hand.

"Training?" Tamaki asked, showing confusion.

"Of course, what did you think? We would just arm you and send you off to glorious battle or something? Only a total idiot would to that. No, we need to make sure you're all combat ready, and to split those who fit the soldier role from those who fit other roles. Unlike most groups, we do need NCP likes mechanics, doctors, office workers etc." S.K said as he laughed a bit at their reaction to this revelation, were they really not used to these types of things? After they had their moment of embarrassment, they all were escorted out, leaving the three to themselves for a moment.

"Well that went well." S.K said as he removed his helmet to reveal he was Suzaku under it. He looked relieved that the meeting didn't end with them having to 'take care of' the rebels to preserve secrecy.

"Not what I imagined when I was informed of this but they will work nicely." Lelouch said as he removed his helmet and placed it on the table.

"Are you sure of this sir? We already scouted the Blood of the Samurai fraction as possible candidates." L.M said as she removed her helmet to reveal a young women of light blonde hair and light purple eyes. She quickly turned to the man behind her and asked for a cup of water which was shortly given to her.

"That they will, I admit that they have much need for improvement but even the finest of blades starts out as an unrefined rock." Lelouch said as this was out of character for him but he did see something in them, something he could use.

"Speaking of unrefined, I was just informed before the meeting, out raw Sakuradite arrived just last night." L.M told him as she recalled the report she read earlier.

"Excellent, I was wondering when it would arrive. Thank you Lieutenant General Malcal." Lelouch thanked her, revealing her real last name.

"It was nothing sir, if it weren't for you, my unit would be dead and I would still be serving the E.U." Malcal said as she remembered how she was a blind servant to the E.U before they met and he showed her the truth of the matter.

"I merely gave you a choice, everything that came after was your own free will Leila, never forget that." Lelouch told her firmly, wanting her to remember he wasn't her master, merely superior.

"Speaking of your people, how is the training of the pilots coming along?" Suzaku asked, wanted to get on with their affairs.

"We have already finished the training of 60 more Knightmare pilots and another 30 aircraft pilots." Malcal reported off by head, showing that she didn't need notes to remember these things.

"Good, as it stands we have 150 knightmare pilots and enough crews for a few dozen tanks, APCs and IFVs. Along with our 1,400 infantry we could storm the Tokyo Settlement right now." Suzaku said, wishing to see his people free as soon as possible only for Lelouch to place a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Patience my friend, there is more to war than just battlefields. One of the key things people forget is that without logistics, you lose as soon the on-hand supplies run dry." Lelouch said as he waved over to the numbers showing their less than stellar resources.

"Before you think of fighting, you have to think of how you plan of sustaining any operations passed the opening move." Malcal said as she too wanted to attack but knew such an offensive would dry up within days at best.

"For the time being, we should be concerned with building up supplies, manpower and war material for the coming campaigns. Meeting dismissed." Lelouch advised before he ended the meeting, letting them all leave him there to carry on with paperwork.

 **Well that's the chapter people, hope you like it. I finally gave Kallen their reasons for fighting as you can tell Leila spoke from the view of someone who had seen the evil of Europe, Lelouch is the person with the best knowledge on how Britannians think and Suzaku was speaking for all of Asia.**

 **Something I want to make clear: Although the uniforms of combat personal is designed like the ones worn by** **Providence agent in Generator Rex, they are different as for one, they are black and grey and not the black and white. I chose this as white is too much of a republic/imperial/first order thing for body armour. Another thing is that the combat uniforms are styled to look more like camouflage than regular as I wanted the armour to resemble modern combat armour as most are issued with camo colours. Another key difference is the fact they wear more body armour in the form of a helmet and vest. Now the reason I change the uniforms worn in combat from the usual black knight armour is because realistically, you want to ensure that your men have as high rate of survival as possible as no amount of training makes them bulletproof. That's the reason why he didn't issue blaster resistant body armour as at this point, no-one uses blaster like that. As for Lelouch's own change in clothing, the cape is the same design as the cannon version but the colours are not. The helmet is also the same but this one is a more advanced version of the cannon as it was built to have a rebreather, radio link, camera, night vision, infrared red vision and special flash-bang protection which dims the light sensitivity to near zero once one is spotted, this makes it that the flash is weaken by around 70%. Making it look more like a big fire cracker going off.  
I said that the Federation was supposed to have the highest population rather the actually having the highest as stated in cannon was this made no sense. I mean according to maps seen in the episode 2 of R2, the European Union controls the whole of Europe and almost all of Russia, Turkey, the nations around Black Sea and the whole of Africa. Even if the Chinese Federation controls almost all of Asia and India as well as the numerous island nations and territories of the Pan Pacific up to Papua New Guinea, I can't see them having more people than Russia and Africa combined.**

 **By the way, S.K is Suzaku Kururugi and L.M is Leila Malcal. They won't always be known as this**


	10. Welcome to Basic training

**Hello again people, welcome to the 10** **th** **chapter of the Force Unleashed. As stated in the last chapter, Cornelia is not gonna be showing up in Area 11 as fast as she did in cannon as she's still busy in the middle-east, so only expect to see her and sweet little Euphie after April passes. This gives the rebels time to train and build up supplies. He isn't affiliated with Kyoto as he doesn't want any loose ends. Yes he and Suzaku know Kaguya and Kirihara but that doesn't mean the other four members are trust worthy, especially if they leaned Lelouch is a former Britannian prince and had no intention of bringing back the old Japan where they had power. This is the chapter where it becomes apparent that he isn't going to run the black knights as he did in cannon and that they are far more threatening to the status quo than before. I bought in Leila as she and her unit are…mostly good people who just have been wronged. It makes sense that they weren't loyal to the E.U as they were nothing more than cannon fodder to the Euros while those who didn't sign up for suicidal military service were forced to live in ghettos capable to the ones those still in Japan had to live in. Again the weakness of the E.U is its very strength as democracies are only as good as the people running them and the people who voted them into power and if the people are arrogant and short sighted…you get the point.**

 **Chapter 10: Welcome to Basic training**

 **April 22nd 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11/Japan:**

 **Atami Black Knight training grounds:**

Kallen was honest with herself.

She always hated playing the sickly girl back at Ashford, even if Milly knew she wasn't just that, playing she ensured that Milly never found out just why she would frequently miss classes.

No, she was a fighter and a warrior. She always thought she was in the best shape she could be in.

Oh boy she was wrong.

The Black Knights really weren't some rebel group. Oh no. they were far more. Just the physical fitness training they all went through showed that. Kallen would think to herself that this was the training that professional soldiers went through. It had been just over three weeks since they started and she already could see that Zero had a much bigger chance of doing what he set out to do then she originally thought. On the first day when she was woken up at 5am, she along with the other 3 girls she was bucked with were instructed to the showers and when they returned, there were fresh new combat uniforms. The uniforms were made up of a black and grey heavy shirt, the torso area was straight black while the sleeves were a mix of shades of grey and black, same with the pants which she figured out was the base camouflage pattern of the Black Knights (She was so damn glad they didn't try to give female officers shorts or skirts). Another good surprise was the fact that the uniforms had built in knee and elbow pads.

Afterwards they were taken to a large tent which served as the mess hall and for a rebel groups, they could really afford to feed them actual food as she saw some recruits savour their food as if it was the best thing they had eaten in forever…on second thought that might hold more water than she would admit.  
Their daily training regiments shifted according to a timetable, much like her classes shifted on school when there wasn't enough time in a single school day so the next would just roll over to become the first class of the next day. The first day was: physical fitness; endurance and stamina training; Survival training; Bare handed self-defence; Swimming lessons for those who couldn't so only Ohgi and Inoue had to do that one; Climbing and finally parkour. By the time she made it back to her bunk-bed, she was spent. The next day had them going over: First-aid; Squad tactics; Weapons training; Weapons maintenance; High school course for those who needed it and flash university level courses for those selected to become officers.  
She would be the first to admit that the training was hard as hell but she also would admit that it was helping them build up strength, speed, reflexes and other necessary tools to not only fight but to survive the harsh reality of a war with Britannia(and the rest of the world powers for that matter).

One bad thing she didn't like was the fact they you were placed away from your own rebel groups and mixed match to keep clicks from forming. She hardly ever saw the other anymore with the ones she did see were Takebayashi and Okuda as the he and Okuda was placed in a unit that specialised in explosives and demolition which happen to have some training regiments with and Nagata from time to time but due to his injury he wasn't allowed to really take training and mostly helped out the clerks in their duties. Another factor was that 2 weeks in, she was approached by one of the trainer and told she had been drafted into the piloting program. Don't get her wrong, she loved the fact that her performance got her into a program meant to last a whole year of training in the final class but it did mean she needed to take overtime classes to make up for lost time such as Knightmare frame maintenance training, Squad Tactics and sniper training. Of course they were given time off to relax, hang out or do whatever you do to blow off some stream. She made friends with her bunkmates in the knightmare program regiment who came in the forms of Asagi Caldwell, Juri Wu Nien and Mayura Labatt. Each of them were her new bunkmates and even though she was new, she was treated like a friend and often could rely on them to help her in their own free time. Because of this, Kallen caught up rather quickly with the rest of the class.

At the moment, Kallen was just laying on her bunk after some time spent running the course, wearing just her pants and her grey undershirt. She could still remember some parts of the training.

 **(Flashback)**

 **April 8** **th** **2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

"Welcome to 'Pull the trigger 101', I'm your instructor Warrant Officer Fu. Okay, as you can see behind me there are numerous weapons and tools that you will be expected to be able to properly use, maintain and repair by the time we are done with your training. These weapons as you can imagine are a much needed upgrade to what most of you are used to…if you ever actually used a firearm before. In your time with me and other instructors, you will be trained in the usage of pistols, SMGs, assault rifles, shotguns, grenade and grenade launchers, snipers rifles, anti-tank, anti-air and anti-knightmare missiles and rockets. Any questions?" the instructor asked, he as an older man who looked to be in his early 50s. He wore the same gear as the rest of the soldiers except a helmet and balaclava. True to his word, there was two tables behind him with a range of firearms and other tools. Kallen wasn't used to seeing so many well-kept and maintained weapons so close to each other, rebels tended to use whatever they had or could find, mostly stuff they got off dead brits and the black market.

"Yes you there." Fu said as he pointed to a guy in the back of their group.

"Sir, how are we expected to master all those weapons?" the man asked, wanting so see how much he needed to study no doubt.

"You're not, as I said, you'll be trained on how to properly use them but depending on where you are stationed and which course you transferred into as training goes on will determine which weapon will be expected to master. For example, those who find themselves in vehicles such as tanks and APCs will be trained to master the shotgun and SMG while knightmare pilots will be trained more with pistols and snipers. Any further question?...None? Good let's continue" Fu explained before he asked once more, with no more questions, he tuned to face the table and grabbed a pistol off it.

"I'll start out with a basic firearm all of you will be expected to master. This will be the basic sidearm for of you, the Heckler & Koch USP. This will save your life more times than you can think of no matter the situation. It takes a magazine of fifteen 9x19mm rounds." Fu explained as he showed the groups the before mentioned fire before he placed it back on the table before grabbing a submachine gun of it. "The next one is the SMG that will be issued to all those assigned to vehicles as stated earlier. The FN P90. The small size makes this beauty ideal for such working conditions or when you need to keep those damn brits off yer tank. It takes a box magazine with fifty FN 5.7x28mm rounds. It's effective at ranges of around 200m so don't think you have a better shot then a brit with a rifle." Fu explained as he took a stance with it pointed away from them before he placed it back down and grabbed another submachine gun. "The SMG that will be used by most ground troops when the situation calls for it is the Heckler & Koch UMP, effective range of 100m with a mag filled with thirty 9x19mm Parabellum rounds." Fu explained as he grabbed said mentioned SMG off the table before placing it back down and grabbing a pretty solid looking assault rifle.

"Now, this next one will be the lifeblood of most of you as you will most likely become infantry, your rifle. The Heckler & Koch G36. It takes 5.56x45mm Euro rounds in a 30-round magazine. With this you can hit and kill a man at a range of up to 800m, even if the gun can fire further than that, I advised against it as only skilled marksmen and snipers should even attempt such." Fu explained as Kallen eyed the rifle with an eye of approval. The gun she was used to could only hit and kill people at around 300m as it was just a SMG with a longer barrel. "Now the next one will be your friend and lover in extremely close combat such as trench and building clearing. The Heckler & Koch Fabarm FP6. This model of shotgun fires 12 gauge 2 ¾ & 3 inch shells at ranges of up to 30m, tis pump actions so remember to pump after each shot and that it only takes 5+1 Rounds or 7+1 rounds depending on the ammunition used." Fu told them as he picked up a small looking pump action shotgun and pumped the chamber to show them how it was done.

"The next is you main grenade, the RGN hand grenade. Not much to explain other than the fact it has a 3.5 second fuse with around 4000 steel balls inside. Once armed this deadly little ball will kill or injure anything within a 9m range." FU said as he held up the small ball of death for them to see, some backing away from it in case it went off. "Okay I think I've talked enough about the toys you'll be handling. The rest of them will be introduced to you as your training goes on. For now, Private Isayama will do a demonstration to show you newbies how it's done. No offense, but I see a lot of you people firing from the hip and spraying bullets all over the place. You don't up hitting the damn thing and it makes you look like an ass" Fu told them with a smirk as he thought back to how many times he saw some newbie try to fire their weapon like some action hero only to miss 70% of the time.

"Private Isayama, show them what I'm talking about." Fu ordered the young helmet wearing private who nodded his head before turning around to face the empty space behind him. Once the targets pop, he fired from the hip without aiming and out of the 5 targets, only hit three after using up 20 rounds. Kallen and the rest visible cringed at that. Apparently Fu noticed this as well.

"See what I mean, he sprayed bullets all over the damn place and I don't know of all of you are aware but bullets don't grow on trees. You got to know how to use them." Fu told them to get it out of their heads that there will always be ammo to waste, even if well supplied, the Black Knights were a rebel group meaning resources didn't come cheap.

"You got to pick your targets by deliberately aiming down your sights from a stable stance. It also helps to fire in shorts bursts of 5-6 rounds or if you really want to keep in mark, 2-3. Private Isayama, show our recruits here how the BK take down a target. Crouch first, take aim down your sights and fire in short controlled bursts." Fu told them before he ordered the young private to do as he was told. Once the man crouched down and aimed, his shots were a lot more accurate, taking down all 5 targets with just 7 rounds.

"That's all there is to it, you want your target to go down, aim and fire in short controlled bursts." Fu told them once he was satisfied with the results. "Now if your target is behind light, remember that out assaults rifles can penetrate and hit them just as well. This only applies to light cover such as wooden structures mostly. If you find them behind some tougher, you're better off with a grenade, speaking of which." Fu told them so they knew more about the piercing power of their rifles.

"You need to know how to toss a frag grenade." Fu said as he a grenade right off the table and showed them all, some backing away slightly as they still had the fact that thing had a kill/maim radius 9m. Fu didn't seem to care.

"The private will demonstrate they grenades are not just useful for taking out large groups in a single striker but can bypass cover if thrown around it or over said cover." At his words, the private grabbed a grenade off the table and waited for the targets to pop, once they did, out the 11 4 were behind a thin wooden wall. The private pulled the pin and threw the grenade over the wall in a low arch making it land directly behind. The blast took out 8 of the targets.

"Note that frags tend to roll on sloped surfaces. So think twice before throwing one uphill." Fu told them as he went on to explained that you could 'cook' a grenade by pulling the pin and not throwing it immediately but warned that when you do you have to remember the time fuse or you'll just end up blowing yourself up.

"That's enough, you all at least know what you're doing. Head over to firing range so we can really see what you can do." Fu told them before he randomly selected people to come up and fire away, all the while offering advice and tips to those who were not shooting and pointing out the flaws of the ones while offering improvement advise to those shooting.

 **(End Flashback)**

"Hey Kallen, you gotta come check it out." Asagi yelled as she came barrelling into the room, getting Kallen to jump in surprise at the girl's over excitable personality.

"Hmm what?" Kallen asked, she didn't feel like moving about right now and wished to stay in her room.

"The news, they're finally reporting it." Asagi said with a smile as she thought to how much it must hurt their pride to do so.

"Wait, you mean Shinjuku?" Kallen asked, she had already seen that the events that went down in Shinjuku were known to the Black Knights, many patting her on the back when they found out she was Zero's ace in the hole that day. She was wondering if the colonial government would ever say anything about it since it's been almost a month since.

"Nay, probably some bull that makes them look good even after the ass kicking you people gave them. Come on, let's go poke holes in their logic." Asagi said as she grabbed Kallen by the arm and raced towards the rec room where the TV was.

"Fine, fine you don't have to drag me you know." Kallen tried telling her but Asagi wasn't listening again. Once they reached there they saw around 50 other people gathered in the hall watching the large 60 inch TV mounted on the wall displaying the broadcast.

"What we miss?" Asagi asked her friend and training partner, Juri who was seated with Mayura at a table.

"They saying Prince Clovis was attacked and as a result, has been rendered a vegetable." Juri answered as they all focused on the broadcast.

" **Prince Clovis has been taken from us, he fought for peace and justice against all the elevens. He journeyed to Shinjuku to commence the project of urban renewal, to mercifully grant the elevens a better lives as servants to our great nation, only to be struck down as he offered a helping hand. He suffering will be the spark that fans the flames of justice and revenge**." Jeremiah announced as he was standing at a podium within the viceroy's palace, the rest of the Purist men standing at attention behind him with the flashes of the cameras going off every second.

(With Lelouch, Leila and Suzaku)

" **We must all bury on his sorrow and carry one his will. I assure the people of Britannia that we of the purists will hunt down the monsters who did this bring them to justice!"** Jeremiah said over the microphone, amplifying his voice to reach even the farthest reaches.

" **Margrave Jeremiah, who will run the area 11 government with Prince Clovis unable to?"** One of the reporters asked, wishing to get some more information.

" **Until his majesty the emperor chooses his replacement, I shall be running the area 11 government as temporary Viceroy."** Jeremiah responded calmly.

" **Margrave Jeremiah, has there been any progress in the investigation into the attempted murder of Prince Clovis?"** Another asked, wanting the public to hear the results so far.

" **I can't reveal too much at this stage but I can confirm we have made great progress with the investigation and are currently pursuing numerous leads."** Jeremiah responded crisp and controlled in both his tone and facial expressions.

" **Margrave Jeremiah, will the Prince be transferred to a hospital in the Homeland?"** Another reporter asked, hoping he will be able to cover the event.

" **Yes he will, but for security reasons, I cannot reveal when and how this will occur."** Jeremiah shot down as he stepped away from the podium and left the stage along with Kewell and Villetta.

(Meanwhile a world away)

"Those damned elevens!" Cornelia roared as he bashed her fist into the table, slightly cracking it. She along with forces were still in the Middle Eastern federation having nearly conquered of the former country. She, Andreas, Gilford, Euphemia and the Glaston Knights had just finished watching the broadcast on-board the G1 outside of the former MEF capital of Riyadh. Cornelia was absolutely furious at the news of another one of her brothers being hurt, and once more in Area 11 of all places!

"Sister, you must calm down." Euphemia gently said as she placed her hand on top of her sisters, calming her down enough to notice she had cut her fist up from the impact and dent of the wooden table.

"[Sign] I'm sorry Euphie, I'm just upset that we lost another brother. One that was dear to us." Cornelia said as she messaged her now hurting hand as she showed some sadness at what had happened to Clovis.

"Yes, but we can still visit him in the hospital." Euphemia added, trying to keep up her sister spirits, as well as her own as this wasn't the first time one of her dear siblings was hurt.

"Yes we will, after I lay waste to the rebels who dared rise a hand against the crown." Cornelia said, her anger returning full force as she started planning all the ways she would punish the elevens for this transgression against the crown.

"Speaking of which, your highness, we just got word from Prime Minster Schneizel." Andreas stated as she took out a tablet to relay the orders.

"Brother Schneizel? What could have about?" Euphemia asked, it was rare for her elder brother to get involved in Cornelia's affairs as she could manage them just fine.

"He relayed orders from his majesty. Once we clean up the last of resistance here, we are to head to Area 11 with the entire force of our forces and hunt down and destroy the rebels." Andreas read as he answered her question, shocking them all as that would mean well over 60 000 troops and personal. Just to quell a small rebel group?

"That's a bit much don't you think, we could do this with but a fifth of our forces." Gilford asked as he voiced the thoughts on everyone minds.

"Well about that, there appears to have been more to prince Clovis' death you highness." Andreas said as he coughed a bit at the rather unsettling news he was reading in the report.

"What happened Dalton?" Cornelia demanded, wanting to know what could have happened to get her father into the mood to send her and her entire army east. Andreas quickly thought it over and chose to tell her exactly what the report contained on what occurred the day Clovis was shot. It took about 20 minutes but by the time he was done, everyone present was shocked by the amount of loss they suffered in such an operation as well as some of the mistakes and blunders Clovis himself ordered as such using his own guards as soldiers.

"And that's what happened your highness." Andreas finished as he sighed in exhaustion at the news himself, the rest not fairing any better.

"My God, he lost that many troops to rebels?" Cornelia asked, wondering how in the hell's name did her brother managed to screw up so bad. The knightmare alone were bad enough, each area only had a standard garrison of 200, to loss 53 of them in one day? That wasn't speaking about the amount of tanks and APCs he lost.

"It appears so if Margrave Jeremiah is to be believed, there was also the report about the spider like knightmare the rebels fielded. From the reports, it seems to be more than a match for Sunderlands and may prove to be a challenge for our Gloucesters." Gilford added as he was stuck on the part of the stalker being able to completely destroy Sunderlands and stand up to the Lancelot. From what he had heard about Lloyd little project, he wasn't a machine you could just take on and win but this…beast did just that.

(With the Ashford group)

"I can't believe that someone would do that to Clovis." Rivalz said from his place on the table, he along with the rest of the council were in the council room after just watching the announcement on the TV, to them, they didn't understand why someone would do this…well maybe one of them did.

"He was such a nice viceroy too." Shirley said, sadden by the news he may never be able to paint again, she enjoyed attending his art galleys whenever they would host one open to the public.

"Those elevens." Nine muttered to herself, scared out of her mind as she trembled in the corner at the thought that they would commit such a crime.

"But who do you think will replace him?" Rivalz asked, this wasn't something that happened often.

"Maybe it will princess Marrybell, isn't she in charge of an anti-terrorist unit?" Shirley offered up as the exploits of the princess were almost as well known as the tales of the Goddess of Victory herself.

"Yeah, the Glinda knights right?" Rivalz asked, he recalled hearing about them putting down a small rebel uprising in Area 16 just the other day.

"Yeah, that's them. What do you think Milly?" Shirley asked as she turned to face the blonde, who was staring out the window with a lost look in her eyes.

"Milly?" Rivalz asked, now concerned she he couldn't remember a time when Milly didn't have a retort to fire back or the last word. This was a change which he wasn't too sure he liked. Luckily his question seemed to snap her out of it.

"Oh! Oh sorry, my mind was somewhere else really." Milly apologized as she rubbed the back of her head. She didn't want to talk about it but now that she thought about it, Lelouch and Nunnally popping up on the radar again was around the same time all those rumours started up around Shinjuku. She knew he had no love for his family and unlike most Britannians, saw all humans as just that…human, but he wouldn't…would he?

"Anyway, what do you think is going to happen now, I mean this is pretty big?" Rivalz asked them as he watched as the news women explained the situation to the viewers.

"Either way, I have a feeling that things are about to change." Milly said quietly as she watched the replay of the speech.

(Lamperouge Resistance)

Having just finished watching the news, Lelouch, Alice, Suzaku, Nunnally and their guest of Leila, Akito and Oscar Hammel just changed the channel to some cartoons for Alice to watch while they discussed in the background. They were expecting the government to release a statement sooner or later but this was just gold.

"Sometimes you have to just sit and marvel at the propaganda machine they call the media." Suzaku said as he thought back to how the speech made the terrorist look bad and only made the brits look like they weren't planning to fight and caught off guard.

"Indeed, you have to give them credit, losing so many forces in a single day would be a black spot on anyone's record, especially because this area isn't an active war-zone like the MEF was." Oscar said as he drank some of the tea they were served earlier.

"But you have to consider all the time they had to take to make that footage they showed earlier even look true to support their claims." Leila pointed out as she was referring to the brief battle footage shown earlier that made it look like the residents were killed by terrorists."

"All the more ammo we will have to throw right back in their faces." Akito added, not showing how much he was waiting for operation: Dishonour to commence.

"Akito is right, they have set themselves up for disaster. Suzaku, how are the thing we need?" Lelouch said calmly as he placed his tea cup down and turned to his best friend as he asked his questions.

"I've already set up the servers and the prepared video. It's unedited as I don't think we need to change it to make them look like bigger monsters then they already are." Suzaku told them as he was the guy in charge of the footage, from the angles they shot, they wasn't a need to edit. As this was one of the many cases where the truth was more painful than any lie.

"We were also able to hack into the G1 when I jumped on top. We have the audio of the entire battle from their point of view." Nunnally added as she remembered that day. All that time she spent of the roof was smashing open their receiver dish and hooking up the cables to the stacker before using the cable link to hack into the system and get everything they needed while corrupting the files left behind. No sense letting their foes know what they had taken.

"Fantastic, we can begin the broadcast in the next three hours, till then." Lelouch started as he got up from his chair and started making his way down the hall but stopping at the doorway. "Please enjoy yourselves, we are about to write history ladies and gentlemen, one that sees the empire as nothing more than a burning memory." Lelouch finished as he left after that. He walked for a while before reaching the door he was looking for and knocked on the door, alerting the occupant of his arrival.

"I'm coming in so for God's sake, please be decent." Lelouch announced as he waited a few moments before entering the room and just like he expected, there was pizza boxes all over the damn place with the girl in question laying on the bed in her prisoner uniform, something he didn't get as Nunnally had gotten her clothes but she insisted on wearing that of all things?

"If I didn't know any better, I'll say you were planning to peak." C.C said after a few seconds of silence.

"Ha-ha very funny. I didn't came here for your games. I want answers." Lelouch told her as he had all but thrown his sense of shame away. He didn't know how many times he had to go undercover as a girl, those were the times he wished he looked more like a man and less like his mother.

"Shame, you're not going to get them." C.C responded as she continued to munch on a slice of pizza.

"Store the crap, I already know you not human…or more accurately you're not a mortal human." Lelouch told her, even then she didn't seem all that surprised he did know.

"And how did you know that?" C.C asked, she didn't tell, him that and she didn't recall dying in front of him or his allies.

"Aside from the fact I found out your capsule was airtight with no oxygen supply meaning any mortal should have died from lack of oxygen? That captain I questioned knew a lot about you. Clovis must have placed a lot of trust in him seeing how paranoid he was." Lelouch told her as he had done some research on her capsule after they returned that day.

"If that true then you should know that I don't talk unless I get something out of it." C.C shot back, she felt curious about him, something that rarely happened.

"Alright, what do you want?" Lelouch asked her, keeping his guard up.

"I want to hold your hand." C.C said as she held out her hand for him to take only for him to smirk nervously and move back a bit.

"Sorry no can I. I've heard your voice outside the truck that day and I don't particularly like the thought of you messing with my head, next thing I know you curse me or something." Lelouch told her, leaving out the part where he as a force user felt something…of about her and wasn't too keen on physical contact just yet.

"Do you honestly believe in all that?" C.C asked him blandly as she didn't lower her hand.

"I think we're both walking examples that there are beings in this world science and logic can't explain." Lelouch shot back as he knew she had seen him do some crazy shit and along with how Nunnally got her here, she knew he wasn't any regular human himself.

"I guess I can't argue with that. How about tell me what you can and may tell you what I can?" C.C proposed as this was one of the few times she actually made this kind of offer to someone but the way Lelouch answered her questions just creamed he was hiding something but at this stage he was far too wary to trust her…smart boy.

"That's acceptable. My name is Lelouch as you already know, I'm one of the emperor's sons or was till I threw away my noble name. I have been away training and gathering allies for the last 10 years and secondary goal is to see the so called Holy Britannian Empire burn to the ground." Lelouch told her, she was surprised to hear that Charles was his second biggest goal, from what she and Marianne thought, they believed that would be his biggest reason to fight. Just what had happened these past ten years?

"…I see…My I am called C.C and as you know, I'm immortal. I have the ability to give others…gifts as you would say and I was hoping to grant you one but seeing as you already have one, there's no fuss about. I grant gifts to those I believed will be able to grant my one true wish, don't ask. But I haven't met someone who could in my long life." C.C told him vaguely, only adding the unmentioned Geass as additional information.

"Well…that is not as informative as I hoped but I suppose I expected too much. I will leave you the key to the room as well as a credit card to feed your unending appetite for Pizza, don't leave the grounds and try to cover up her rather unique green hair, I don't need people spreading rumours about this place. You're free to come down to the living room to watch the broadcast later. We begin in just under three hours. Oh and the phone will be connected to the landline in about 20 minutes." Lelouch said as she took out a burner card and left it along with her room key on the dresser before walking out and closing the door behind him.

"Now what is happening later?" C.C asked herself as she grabbed the card and placed in between her breast as her current attire had no pockets. She thought about for a moment or two before deciding that he was worth the trip and left the room as well.

(Later by the Area 11 Bureau)

"How is the investigation into this Shinjuku business going?" Jeremiah asked Villetta as she stood in front of his desk, he was busy pouring over all the evidence they had so far, suffice to say, it wasn't much.

"I would say we have gotten no-where. We were able to back trace the stuff back the facility it was stolen from and found the place completely scrubbed clean. I mean clean as in there was dust, whatever was there, it's gone now." Villetta reported as she placed down another report about it on the desk, getting a groan of exhaustion and frustration out of her boss and friend.

"Dammit, and with Bartley missing from his hospital bed, this was our best lead." Jeremiah hissed angrily as Bartley had disappeared from his hospital room the very next day after he woke up. The staff don't remember seeing anything only that he was there before 10am, after that-nothing.

"Frankly, I'm surprised that it took us three days just to find where the supposed gas was stolen from, you would think that would have been common knowledge." Villetta muttered as he was a bit ashamed that it took so damn long to find the place.

"We were sent to recapture the 'gas', not question as from where the elevens got their hands on it. Wish we at least asked now." Jeremiah told him as no police officer wonders where the thief got the money, they only think if catching them. Same with this.

"I doubt they would have. I was however able to back trace some of other details." Villetta added as he didn't think they would have told him anyway, hell they would have probably got rid of him if he seemed like a liability.

"Care to explain?" Jeremiah asked, he hoped this wasn't another wild goose chase like the other 4 leads.

"Of course, as you are aware, the company that was producing our unknown was registered to a minor noble house that after investigation revealed to just have been a cover for Prince Clovis to carry it out. I was able to get in contact with the owner in Area 13, he was willing to tell us what he knew seeing how the prince was nearly killed for this." Villetta told him with her tired smile as she had been on the phone with them for about three hours.

"And? Did he know anything?" Jeremiah asked excitedly, finally a break!

"He was able to supply the names of three members of the staff there. One of them had been brought here just a few minutes ago." Villetta reported crisply, getting a frown of confusion form her boss.

"What about the other two?" Jeremiah asked.

"Dead sir. Both seemed to have been killed. One was found to have cyanide in her system suggesting she was poison and the other was strangled in his sleep. Sir, whatever this is there are people who don't want it getting out." Villetta told him as by they found both had been dead for a while. The only reason no-one knew about it was because they both lived alone. The poison victim had been dead for around 12 hours going by the coroner's report while the other had been dead for at least 3 days. Just what had the poor prince been up to?

"Hmmm, Place guards around our lead at all times, I want him watched at all times." Jeremiah ordered before he was interrupted by an out of breath Kewell who barged into the room. "Kewell, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Never mind that, turn on the TV, something's happening." Kewell yelled as loud as an out of breath man could as he gestured to the flat-screen in the corner.

"What's going on?" Villetta asked worriedly as she picked up the remote.

"It's them, the ones who shot the G1 to pieces and the prince! They say they're about to announce something!" Kewell yelled at them, getting Villetta to instantly turn on the TV while the margrave practically jumped out of his seat in fury.

"What they dare!" Jeremiah roared in fury as he stood up and turned to face the TV screen, on it was a tall male man wearing some kind of black and purple armour attire.

" **Good evening my dear viewers. I am Zero, I'm terribly sorry for interrupting your scheduled programming but I have an announcement to make**." Lelouch introduced as he stood in front of the spotlight. He wore the same thing as he did the day he introduced himself to Kallen and her group. To the world they were stunned silent, who was this person? Why was he on TV? How did he hijack the most if not all of the networks? And was so importance he would do so to tell them.

(With the Ashford group)

" **To the people of the world, I say this. You have been lied to, the truth has been kept from you by those in power as they seek to feed your deceit and misdirection**. **You were informed that your fool of a viceroy, the 'dear' prince Clovis was attempting to lend a helping hand to the Japanese who call Shinjuku ghetto their home. That wasn't the case by any means, no, he was there for far more…malicious intentions. I'll like to shed some light on the real reason he was in the ghetto in the first place. First, the former viceroy had been involved in cruel, inhumane and illegal human experimentation project called Code-R for the better part of the last 7 years. The goal: the damn fool wished to gain immortality."** Zero told the world, his tone dripping disgust as he revealed only the first of Clovis' crimes to the world.

"Wait, he was WHAT?!" Shirley screamed, that was such a bombshell she fell out of her chair.

"That can't be true, he would never…" Nine muttered, the prince would never do such a thing, this….this eleven must be lying.

(Witt Bartley and the rest of the Code-R research team)

" **I know that this is hard to believe people, I would too if I had not seen the evidence myself, which as I speak copies of them have been sent to every major news network in Britannia, the Chinese federation and the European Union. It has also being uploaded to the web every five minutes to different sites as we speak to prevent the Britannian government from covering it up. You can check for yourself and see the truth. I warn you though, it is not something for the eyes of children and the weak of heart."** Zero said as three smaller popped up around him, each one showing evidence in the forms and sensitive government documents and videos of Clovis walking around a lab where there be people strapped to hospital beds being 'worked' on. The last screen had a list of sites for the people to search online to see more if they didn't think what he was saying enough.

"This is bad, this is really bad!" One of the staff yelled as she pulled at his own hair, his colleagues not fairing any better as all their work was just made public right before their very eyes.

"How did he get all that? The only places that had copies were his highness's personal server and here!" Batley demanded, this would ruin his highness, there was no way to do damage control on this.

"I don't know but it doesn't matter now." Another said as he pointed to the screen which showed that the screens were stilling playing, now showing pictures of memos and other work related notes with the gruesome parts highlighted, even if this poser was highlighting the really bad parts, most of them were sane enough to know that most would all their project nothing short of inhumane.

(With the 6 Houses of Kyoto)

" **The corrupt prince thought himself above the laws, principles and morals of his fellow man because of his bloodline. He thought himself to be untouchable, till his prized 'experiment' was stolen from him by rebel fighters who thought the capsule holding the poor soul to contain poison gas. I believe you can see why they would not want him to have such a thing after hearing what he had been doing while he smiled and waved like some saint up high."** Zero stated as he showed a video of Clovis waving at people at one of his art showed right next to one of him watching his victims suffer. Giving a stark contrast between the person he wanted people to see and the man he really was under the make-up and public appearances.

"How could we not have known of this? Those were Japanese people he was abusing!" One of the six houses member yelled as he looked absolutely furious that such evil was committed without them even suspecting a thing.

"He obviously kept it under wraps, Lady Kaguya, is what this 'Zero' saying to be true?" Kirihara asked his apprentice, he never liked the Viceroy but those were some serious accusations levied against him. He couldn't just take this man's word for it

"I'm afraid so, I just searched one of those sites and its all here. I already downloaded everything so we can see later…I think I'm gonna be sick after seeing all that." Kaguya responded as she showed that the laptop screen read download complete, all the while she look like she was going to vomit and cry all at the same time.

(With Schneizel and Kanon)

" **The rebel fighters fought his forces and fled to the Shinjuku ghetto. They believed they would be safe, they believed wrong. Clovis, fearing the repercussions of his actions did the unthinkable. In order to reclaim or destroy the victim of his vanity and greed, he ordered that the Shinjuku Ghetto and all within it destroyed. You heard me listeners. He ordered the deaths of over 200 000 people. Innocent men, women and children slaughtered like animals all for the sake of one evil's desire to commit sin and get away with it.**

Back in the Homeland city of New York, the 2nd prince and his loyal aide de camp were watching the broadcast just like the rest of the world. "Your highness…this is…" Kanon said as she didn't know what to say, this was destroy the prince and by extension, make the entire royal family look bad. They were in the middle of negotiations with the E.U. this could ruin everything.

"Yes Kanon, this is very bad." Schneizel 'Clovis what were you thinking? This would have come out eventually even if you were still in power, why were you even involved with this madness to begin' Schneizel thought to himself as he watched wide eyes as the brother he thought he knew was exposed as nothing short of a monster.

(With Diethard and the rest of the Hi-TV crew)

With Diethard, he was near salivating at this broadcast…this work of art. He knew only someone with an agenda no matter how small would reveal this as this would cause anarchy in the streets and empower anti-Britannian sentiment across the board. Even as he faintly heard his boss screamed at the tech crew to cancel the broadcast only to be told someone had hacked into their system and locked them out.

"Why can't you stop this? Tts going out the whole world!" the portly man yelled, ever so loyal to his prince that seeing his name be devastated beyond repair like this was something he couldn't stand for.

"It's not us sir, someone else is remotely broadcasting this. The system isn't taking any of our codes!" The tech man reported back as two others tried to gain access only for the keyboard to self-fry itself, killing any hope of stopping this.

" **Once more I do not say baseless claims as I do have proof. Ladies and gentlemen. What you are about to here is extract from the audio records of the G1 land base that Clovis was commanding his madness into action."** Zero said as the all the windows on screen closed and another opened up, this once clearly an audio file.  
 **("They got away? And you call yourselves the Royal Guard!" Bartley yelled  
"F-Forgive me my lord, the blast was mainly directed upwards but the deb-!"  
"Why the hell do you think I only told you people about this?" Bartley.  
"We-We'll continue the investigation." The captain.  
"The plan has moved forward to the next phase." Clovis said.  
"Bu-but you highness…" Bartley asked.  
"If knowledge of her gets out, I'll be disinherited. Tell them back home we're carrying out a planned urban renewal here. As Clovis, third prince of the empire I command you: Destroy Shinjuku Ghetto, leave no-one alive!" Clovis ordered.)  
**The file finished, stunning the common people of the world that the prince would order such an evil act. All to cover his own ass from justice. At this point only the most devote followers of Social Darwinism would dare think the prince was in the right but they all were wise enough to keep it to themselves lest they be lynched by the more humane people around them.

(With Kallen and her cell)

Kallen and her group couldn't believe it, they thought to stole poison gas…not …this a subject of human experimentation. It made all the more sense why the prince would order the destruction of the whole of Shinjuku to cover it up. It was so much better to be charged with the one than the other. All the same, she couldn't stop the tears from flowing like a raging river as she listened to the bastard order the slaughter of so many. It was almost too much for her, luckily Inoue was there to give her a much needed hug even if she was crying herself. **"That people of the world…was the true face of our so called beloved prince, the man would sooner kill a baby than voluntarily offer up aid to the Japanese like the government would want you to believe. The next part of the hardest part. Video footage of Britannians soldiers carrying out his orders with zeal, not one of them seeing the maliciousness of his orders and questioning them. I advise that once more, those faint of heart and children not view this part."** Zero announced once more as the whole screen was replaced by six different camera feeds, three appeared to be from a bird eyes view but they all showed the same thing.

Nothing but a one sided slaughter, men, women…God even children and the elderly were put through this act of butchery. The group was left in tears as they watched people be shot, stabbed, blown up, trampled by knightmares, ran over by tanks as they tried to flee death. None were spared.

" **I let it be known by the day was done, that even with the rebels fighting tooth and nail alongside myself to protect the innocent denizens, 17 000 perished that day. All that life…lost because of the selfish whims of one arrogant so called noble"** Zero visible mourned as she shoulders dropped at the news he had to report. To all the world, he was nothing but sadden and furious by such a loss which was the very emotions he was feeling, not a show but real honest-to-God emotions.

"I…I thought he just wanted to kill us…not…not THIS!" Okuda whimpered as she broke down at the end, leaving surprisingly a Tamaki to soothe her as she set aside his own anger to help his dear friends

'That son of a bitch, vegetable or no. If I could get my hands on him." Minami seethed, the normally cool and composed member of the group looking absolutely livid.

(With Cornelia and Euphemia)

By this point, Euphemia had been reduced to hysterical tears as the broadcast continued to play, she didn't want to believe, she didn't want to believe the kind painter she had once known had turned into such a monster. She loved her family dearly but now…she was questioning if Clovis was ever really a part of it. Cornelia was doing better than her sister. She was used to seeing bloodshed, hell she was the cause of more than a few of them but this, all that for such a foolish reason. Oh how Clovis had fallen.

" **I ask this. Where was the so called mercy he preached about? Where were these terrorist fighters your government claimed to have been responsible for the bloodshed in this? Where is the righteousness in the so called 'Holy Britannian Empire' in slaughtering innocents by the hundreds all on the word of a bastard such as Clovis? I will tell you. There was none!"** Zero demanded of them, knowing that even if they could, none had an answer to this.

"Your highness…that, this can't be true be true…can it?" Gilford asked of his royal lord, he had met the prince on a few occasions in the past and he never got such a vibe from him that would suggest he was capable of such barbarism.

"Clearly there is more to my brother than any of us realized." Cornelia told him, clearly off her rocker at the news of what Clovis was really doing that day he was shot. Like Euphie she dearly loved him but she also was disgusted by his actions. All that to cover his own hide? Why did he even involve himself in such a project?

(With the Emperor and the Knight of Six)

While this was happening, the emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire was seated in his private study watching the broadcast. Along with him was Marianne who was currently in control of Anya's body. Both had a feeling they knew who it was under that mask. **"Clovis did all this because he was the strong and they were the weak. At this, I will not deny the emperor's words. All men are NOT created equal. That there will always be those who are weak and those who are strong. But does that give them the right to oppress and abuse the weak as they see fit. I say NO! I say that no matter who you are, no matter how strong you are today no-one has that right, for were we not all but defenceless children? Did we not need to be taught, feed and protected from this harsh world we live in? It is the solemn duty of the strong to protect the weak so that they too may become strong. Power never stays with the same person forever that is a fact history can contest as many old kingdoms have fallen only to be replaced by others.**

"Interesting choice of words…Lelouch." Charles mused as most who stood against him and the empire never acknowledged that simple truth. It seems his son was more like him then he would ever admit.

"This will no doubt have very big repercussions for the empire dear, the E.U might try to get more out the talks now." Marianne said, the E.U. government will make use of this for their own purposes for sure. Maybe they will force them to give back Area 17 seeing how most of North Africa was E.U. land a few years ago.

"I have a feeling the boy was banking on that. He understands that the king is nothing without his people so it will be all the harder for Cornelia to fight him now." Charles told her, since with this the people will be far less trusting of government and by extension, the royal family. Cornelia won't be able to use her usual methods without adding fuel to the fire his son had lit in the people.

"Do you think he's trying to make you into the next Louis XVI?" Marianne asked her husband, this was eerily similar to what occurred in France before Napoléon stepped in and started cutting off some noble heads. It made sense that her son would follow in the footsteps of the only person to ever deal the empire a decisive military defeat. To this day the British Isles was a territory of France and a reminder of their biggest humiliation. Something that most Britannian historians liked to forget and wasn't really touched up much in their history classes.

"No…that boy would sooner try to take my head himself then let others do it for him. But I have to agree with you. If we wish to escape the fate that befell France all those years ago, we need to move carefully." Charles answered her as she watched his son preform his grand debut. A part of him wondering what else he had up his sleeve now that he had successfully targeted and destroyed popular support for his regime, at least in Area 11.

(With Kaya and Reyla)

" **We intervened that day not for the sake of fighting the empire but to end the slaughter, to protect the people whose only crime in the eyes of Clovis was being born Japanese. To that end, I am proud to say that the one who killed all those heartless soldiers, the one who destroyed the empire's machines of war, the one who placed a bullet in the skull of the twice be damned prince…was myself! Ladies and Gentlemen. I casted judgement on them all and sent them down to the depths of hell, only it appears the devil spat Clovis right back up it seems.** " Zero noted with a huff as he like the rest of the world and beyond wondered how in the hell Clovis was still alive, especially now that the people knew of his crimes. It was almost like Zero was right and the not even the devil wanted him.

"That's out Lulu, always on the spotlight." Kaya said as she saluted the man on the Holo-screen, both her and Reyla were in her workshop watching the earth born broadcast.

"Yeah, yeah it is, I only wish it was under better circumstances." Reyla noted with a frown as she couldn't stop thinking about all those people killed. At the thought of it, even Kaya sobered up a bit to the mood.

"Yeah, me too but we already suspected Clovis was up to something, just not something like this." Kaya told her as she gestured to the file on her table which was everything they had on Code-R, it wasn't much.

"…Do you think I should go? To Earth?" Reyla asked, she had been thinking about this for a while now and she wanted the opinion of a dear friend.

"That's up to you as we both know I would stick out like a sore thumb on a foot. Besides your boy may be a father now of what Suzaku said in the last transmission was anything to go by." Kaya joked as she pulled on her tentacles with a smirk before her smirk turned into a full blown grin as she gestured to her table where a printed picture of Lelouch seated on a recliner with a little girl fast asleep on his arms, both wore their pyjama with the little girl's being covered in cat motifs. It was also one of those few times a picture was taken of the purple eyes boy when he was genuinely at peace.

"Yeah, if he wanted kids, all he had to do was ask." Reyla joked as they both laughed a bit.

Kaya never noticed how Reyla's hand came to rest on her belly.

(With Rai, Lloyd and Cecile)

" **Now…I know what you are all wondering now, well among other things but I shall answer one of those questions. We…are the Black Knights!"** Zero announced as the video feed was replaced with him as the lights on stage he was standing on were switched on to show that they were 14 people standing behind him, all wearing the Black Knights uniform. (The one in cannon not the combat gear)

"Black Knights?" Cecile questioned, that wasn't a very common term among the Japanese or any Asian culture really. She was in their lab along with the tech crew, Lloyd and Rai, all of which were helping repair and upgrade the Lancelot for its next match against the now revealed threat.

"Ironic isn't, the rebels calling themselves knights but then again, they certainly lived up to that the fantasied knight of legend was supposed to do, saving the innocent and striking down evil and all that." Lloyd commented from the side, his carefree smile still on his face even when Cecile turned to him with a disapproving frown.

"Lloyd, we do still work for the government you know." Cecile reminded him with a small glare

"No my dear, we work for the Prime Minister so we aren't really involved in this mess." Lloyd shot back, effectively telling her they weren't to be held responsible for the whole thing as they didn't participate in the first battle and afterwards only fought against the rebels.

"I knew that something was off." Rai said quietly as she sat in the knightmares seat with the cockpit.

"What do you mean?" One of the tech crew asked as she was close enough to have heard him.

"Remember when you found me, I was the one who found the truck, there wasn't any gas at all just some green haired girl in a prisoner's uniform." Rai elaborated as he finally revealed what he saw that day now that there was no point in hiding it. The crew weren't as shocked as he thought they would but considering what they all just saw went down, he shouldn't be surprised. One of them was still puking up his dinner in the corner after watching the very graphic slaughter.

"I'm guessing that's why you were shot, you saw something you shouldn't have. Doesn't matter now since this Zero person is hanging all of Clovis' dirty secrets out to dry." Lloyd asked or more accurately said as he had his suspicions as to what the boy was shot but kept them to himself.

'My Lady, what do you think of all this? What would you have me do?' Rai thought to himself as he thought of his lady and what she would have done in his shoes that day.

(With the Japanese Liberation Front)

 **We of the Black Knights stand for those who can't fight, we speak for those who have been silenced and we pray for those who have been wronged. Regardless of their race, nationality, gender, religion or culture. As you all know. Prince Clovis betrayed his vows and rather than protect and serve the people, he chose himself and mercilessly murdered them in what can only be called genocide, therefore he and the rest of his staff were punished. I will not repudiate battle on a fair and level field, but neither will I tolerate a one sided massacre of the weak by the strong. The only ones who should kill are those prepared to be killed!"** Zero proclaimed as she rose both arms to open up his cape, waking himself seem bigger than he was.

"You mean he would defend even Britannians? After this crime?" Nagisa Chiba questioned, the only female member of the four holy swords wasn't not happy, first that broadcast and not this chalet ton claiming he would fight for anyone no matter what?

"Well he didn't say he would fight for the crown, just the people. History has proven the two to be different things times and again." Ryoga Senba added, the elder of the swords dissecting the man's words and finding some truth in them, after all the JLF wasn't that active because they didn't attack civilian targets like many other groups.

"Come to think of it, weren't there some reports about rebel cells being hunted down and destroyed? Cells that regularly made civvies their targets?" Shōgo Asahina asked as he remembered reading them.

"If would fit his MO he apparently has, harm the innocent and non-combatants and he will find you and end you." Kosetsu Urabe said as he shivered a bit at the thought of that spider thingy attacking them, just that small footage alone told them it wasn't a machine to be messed with.

"Then what you we plan on doing, he clearly isn't a rebel fighter?"

"We will wait, he hasn't declared himself our enemy just yet and our operations aren't subject to his criteria on what qualify as targets. For now, we observe." Kyoshirou Tohdoh stated, ending the talk as he and the rest of the swords continued to watch the broadcast. Tohdoh himself very much curious as to how this 'Zero' got his hands on all this evidence.

(With Ashford Group)

 **Where ever oppressors abused their power by attacking those who are powerless, we shall appear again no matter who they are, how mighty they are we will fight. Even if our opponent is Emperor Charles zi Britannia himself! We won't stop till his head rest by our feet! For those of you with power, fear us.  
For those of without it, rally behind us. We the Black Knight, will be the ones who stand in judgement of this world!** Zero finished as he broadcast was cut, leaving a very stunned newscaster to try and pick up the pieces of what was just a normal evening news cast.

"Did…did he just pick a fight with the emperor?" Rivalz asked, needing something to get his mind all the murder as he already threw up his lunch and dinner.

"I think…I think he did. I can't believe that Clovis would do such a thing…all those people." Shirley agreed with him, the poor girl shivering as she just watched the viceroy she defended earlier was nothing more than a monster. Only a monster could order such a thing without caring for the people you just put to death.

"But why would he want immortality, didn't he know there no such thing." Rivalz asked, why would he searched for such a pipedream. It didn't make any sense to him.

"He wouldn't….he wouldn't…the prince wouldn't do such things." Nina muttered to herself, not being able to accept that the royal family she idolised for so long could have a bad apple like, which made her question them as a whole.

"Nina, you alright?" Shirley asked, moving to the girl but she was stopped by Rivalz who shook his head at her.

"Leave her be, she obviously needs to come to terms with the fact that not everything you hear on the news is right." Rivalz told them as he removed his hand from her shoulder and sat back down, his hand in his hands as the whole thing came crashing down on him.

"I think all need to, something tells me that was just the first shot, the salvo is yet to come." Milly said cryptically as she looked out the window towards the settlement, imaging the whole place covered with fire as the Japanese burn down the empire. It was times like this when she wondered when their time will come. Carthage was destroyed by Rome, Rome was destroyed by vandals, those vandals were beaten by the early French and English, then the Holy Roman Empire rose and terrorised Europe, then Spain rose to power, then France before the British crown took power. She knew that power never stayed with you and her family's fall from grace was proof of this before the French kicked them out of Europe all those decades ago. Sure the Empire was a major world player now but….

How long will it last before someone came and burned them to ground? Never minding the fact they have as a country have wronged millions of people for their own benefit.

 **5.56x45mm Euro is the same type of round as the 5.56x45mm NATO. I couldn't use the term NATO as major player in NATO is the U.S. plus NATO was formed to combat the Soviet Union which in this universe, both the U.S and U.S.S.R never existed. I also didn't have the Purist frame Rai for the attack on Clovis as one of the driving forces of framing Suzaku was because he was the son of the Japanese people's last prime minister. They hoped that with his 'trial' finding him guilty and subsequent death sentence will allow them to abolish the practice of granting elevens honorary Britannian status. With Suzaku not being the factor, they don't really have a reason to frame Rai as it wouldn't have the same effect since if they try of make themselves sound merciful to build him up by revealing he was made a knight/pilot of the Lancelot then people would question why they broke protocol in the first place as honourees aren't allowed to become pilots in the first place. Another factor is that Jeremiah and Kewell know who did attack Clovis and are trying to track them down rather than cannon when Bartley was just a suspect in the murder investigation, they also know that whatever was in the truck wasn't poison gas and know that by now, the rebels know that too. They trying to play it safe till they can make a move which is the smart thing to do. There was also a little tid-bit in the chapter abut Reyla being pregnant and just to confirm with you. She is and at this point, she would be around 6 weeks in as the last time she saw Lelouch was March 11** **th** **and now it's April 22** **nd** **making it so 42 days have gone by. So yeah Lulu is a dad now…wonder what Milly would do with that information? Hmmmmmm?**

 **Speaking of Milly, her little moment at the end was inspired by Shepherd's speech in the beginning of MW2. She like Lelouch knows that power is a fickle thing and like a slut, it will leave you for someone new/better the first chance it gets. She is also scared for her friends who like her a Britannians. She paid attention in history and she knows what the vandals did when they raided Rome and what the French committed when they marched on London. She has scared her friends will be punished for the sins of the country when this new player who she suspects to be Lelouch beats the colonial government right back across the pacific. She doesn't think the Japanese will be anymore merciful then the armed forced were to them when they invaded their homeland.**

 **I mentioned in the last chapters that for the pacific cup, it will be a multi area event but I forgot to specify which areas are which so I came up with some for this story going by maps seen in season 1 and early season 2. So the countries and regions making up Britannia:**

 **Homeland:** **Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island**

 **Area 1: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin**

 **Area 2: Florida & Cuba**

 **Area 3: Canada**

 **Area 4: Alaska**

 **Area 5: Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas**

 **Area 6: California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado**

 **Area 7: Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Belize**

 **Area 8: Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, French Guiana**

 **Area 9: Chile, Argentina, Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Bouvet Island**

 **Area 10: New Zealand**

 **Area 11: Japan**

 **Area 12: Hawaii**

 **Area 13: Greenland**

 **Area 14: Iceland**

 **Area 15: Morocco, Western Sahara**

 **Area 16: Algeria**

 **Area 17: Libya, Tunisia, Algeria**

 **Area 18: Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon (Otherwise known as the Middle Eastern Federation)**

 **The Capital of Pendragon was just built over the old Washington rebellion capital of Philadelphia and not in some Gad forsaken desert.**


	11. On a Calm Day

**Well…that was a first blow if I haven't seen one. As you can imagine, after such a broadcast, the world will wants answers and for Clovis to be punished for his actions, even if he's a veggie right now, mob mentality works in odd ways. As you all saw last chapter, I showed Lelouch's broadcast to the world from many people's and groups point of view, even Charles and Marianne who also watched it.  
Poor Euphie, though, we all saw in canon that she still thought her brother was a gentle man when she took office. I will say she was ignorant of the situation she never really was that involved in government as we thought she was. I mean if she was she would have found out what really happened in Shinjuku, all she had to do was ask Suzaku who KNEW there was no poison gas to speak of. If she did she would have known that Clovis ordered a massacre for other reasons and she would have watched her sister better. After all Cornelia first act to draw out zero was to do the same to Saitama as she knew he would have to show up and stop her to save face.  
This was proven in the story 'Code Geass: The Prepared Rebellion V2' (Great story by the way) as in that story, as soon as Euphemia found out what her sister was up to, she raced off to stop it. She didn't do this in canon as she must of not known about it as if she did, she would have done something, if she found out about it later, she would have doubt brought it up with Cornelia who herself had no way of proving that the **_**whole**_ **of Saitama were assisting the rebels there. That would have no doubt shaken the relationship between the sisters and added some more seasoning to the plot by showing us how much they differ even if they are siblings. Much like Lelouch and Nunnally since he was Chaotic Good while Nunnally was Lawful good. Roles they both played for most of the series.  
Anyway this chapter will have the aftermath of the whole affair and how the people of the world and Japan are dealing with it. It will also have more Alice moments as she needs her time to shrine as a character.**

 **Chapter 11: On a Calm Day**

 **April 25th 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Britannian Homeland:**

 **Pendragon Imperial Palace:**

(News broadcast)

" **In our main story, the Area 11 government has once more denied reporters answers as to what former viceroy, 3** **rd** **Prince Clovis la Britannia was really doing in the Shinjuku ghetto. It has been two days since the masked, terrorist who goes by the name of 'Zero' made his statement to the world and released video and documents pertaining to the alleged criminal activities of the former viceroy. Since then riots have broken out in the Tokyo settlements as well as four other cities across Area 11. Each one has been put down since by police forces as our sources have reported that all military personal have been effectively placed on house arrest until such a time that a detailed inquiry on the Shinjuku massacre as the people have come to call it and the private dealings of Prince Clovis can be launched. Anti-government sentiment among Britannian citizens has risen to a record high 34%, a number so high it has not been seen since 1980s. In other news, 2** **nd** **Princess Cornelia has been announced to be the replacement to 3** **rd** **Prince Clovis by Prime Minister Schneizel el Britannia. In his speech, the Prime minster has assured that the truth of the matter will be revealed in time and that the results will be made public**." The new reporter told the public over the television, as she gave her short speech, shorts clips and videos of the incidents were being shown in the background, each one not looking good as Britannians had not taken to the street in protest in years.

" **Yes on the matter of the Prime minster, talks between the Britannian Empire and the E.U have slowed to a halt as the delegates of the E.U member nations of France, Greece, Portugal Spain and Italy pull out in response to the uproar caused by Zero. No comment as been made as to why other then they will first see if the office of the Prime minster is to be trusted at this point. Due to the breakdown of talks, Britannian and Spanish troops have begun to mass in Gibraltar and Area 15 respectively however, Prime Minister Schneizel el Britannia has called the move a security measure and not a build-up to an invasion**." Her colleague confirmed as a clip of the French delegates leaving the summit in New York were shown before they all got into their limos and drove off. It was at this moment the emperor of the most powerful empire the world had ever seen turned off the TV. It was rare that he even watched it as he had agents who informed him on matters like this but he wanted to see it with his own eyes.

"Well that's a great big mess of things." Charles summarised as he messaged his eyes for a bit, this wasn't what he was expecting if you had asked him what he was planning just a month prior but his children always did a way of getting to him

"Too right dear, now with these revealed to the world, we have to halt all plans for conquest till the commoners are settled." Marianne replied as she read over the reports of the riots, already the nobles were showing signs of fear in what the people may do, spineless inbreeds.

"That's not taking into account all the increased rebel activity in area 11 through 16. At this rate, we may have to despatch rounds to all of them." Charles told her.

"Weakening out attack force for the assault on the E.U. which are using our delay as a means to build up their own forces. Naval blockades now monitor their territorial waters much more closely now. V.V was most annoyed by the fact his agents in the E.U are finding it hard to leave." Marianne finished for hi as she caught on to what he was saying.

"That's little troll can't handle the thought of having a 2nd plan and is just pissed his first one failed. Speaking of which, does he know?" Marianne added as she had read the letter V.V sent Charles.

"About who Zero may be? No he has no clue as our wayward son dropped off the map ten years ago. He spent 3 years looking for him and only ever got dead ends." Charles told her, somewhat glad those two won't meet for a while, he didn't need to think what kind of destruction a telekinesis user and immortal could do.

"We assumed he would head to the Ashford's but he never made it. I don't know where they were all these years but now…this isn't something we foresaw." Marianne told him as she worried for her children, she knew they weren't dead as Charles would frequently enter C's World to check. Not those same children have returned…ready to burn down everything the nation of Britannia stood for, with Charles on top of that fire.

"By the way, how did Clovis get his hands on C.C for so long? Even in her capsule, she should have been able to escape. Why didn't she?" Marianne asked as she was not easy to even get a picture of the pizza loving immortal, how did idiot man child Clovis manages to catch and contain her for so long in the first place?

"From what I can guess, V.V must have had a hand in it, do doubt he wasn't thinking again and now it has blown up in our faces." Charles told her his thought as he felt every bit as old as he was due to this latest setback, they were supposed to have started the Ragnarok Connection in 2018 but due to some new thought elevators being found in other lands, they had to hold it off.

"I told you he can't be trusted, he may be older than both of us Charles but he acts and thinks like a child at the worst of times." Marianne told him, angry that his short sighted actions may have cost them big this time, oh who was she kidding, that little midget never thought before he did something.

"Yes dear but we still need him for the plan to succeed." Charles told her tiredly as this wasn't the first or the last time she would bring this up.

"That doesn't mean he needs to have free reign to walk around and such, you and I both know he isn't as good as he thinks he is. He's an envious little troll who throws his faulty geass agents at any and all problems that arise rather than looking for alternative means." Marianne told him firmly as she didn't let up.

"Faulty?" Charles, he didn't think geass could be faulty as it was based off their user's deepest desires and not the contractor.

"You heard me, I mean what kind of power stops your own heart, with a condition like that, that's a geass which will never reach maturity and sooner kill off the user." Marianne told him as she thought back to that Rolo boy V.V as so fond of, how could he reach his full potential when his power was sure to kill him before then?

"I thought you were dealing with your anger towards V.V Marianne." Charles asked but more said as this was a topic they would always argue on, he didn't even need to look to see that she was not in the mood.

"Sorry about that, dealing with being killed in my own home by such a troll isn't something easily forgotten. We could have completed the plan by now you know. You were there when I put Lelouch through his first combat classes, when it comes to adapting to the battlefield and intelligence, he outstripped both Schneizel and Cornelia. Hell he would have lead the charge to recapture the isles and saw it as a challenge. But no, that little troll just couldn't stand the thought of his brother having a humanly relationship outside himself, I swear he has may be on the closet with a brother complex to boot." Marianne raged as she paced around the room, clearly incensed that he was allowed to roam free when he had proven he wasn't trustworthy by quote unquote killing her!

"Alright that's enough dear, I sure he isn't gay or has a brother complex but I assure you that he is being watched." Charles told her as he had several agents who weren't fully loyal to his elder brother watching over him, so far he hasn't done anything of importance.

"Good, what do you suppose we do about our children?" Marianne asked as she wanted to hear how he planned to handle them now that they have returned to the light of day…so to speak.

"At the moment, we know too little about their abilities and resources, the boy was able to mask his and his sister presence from both the O.S.I and the Order. That says that if he thinks he has a tail, they'll disappear like smoke in the wind. For the time being, we need to watch his movements before approaching them. At the very least I can see young Nunnally listening to reason, her brother will be easier swayed if she sees our point." Charles told her as he thought to how the battle of Shinjuku went and how he led Clovis by the nose into trap unto trap over and over.

"That's right, he always did dot about for her. I would recommend Euphemia as well bit it has been 10 years so we don't know how he would respond to her, clearly Clovis wasn't considered a brother enough to not end him." Marianne said out loud as they didn't know what their son was capable of now.

 _ **May 2**_ _ **nd**_ _ **2020 A.T.B/ 3 629BBY:**_

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11/Japan:**

 **Tokyo Garrison Aerodrome Settlement:**

Cornelia li Britannia, Second Princess of Britannia and one of the highest ranking members in the Imperial Army, strode off the her private jet and looked at the neatly ordered ranks of soldiers before her. They disgusted her. Why were they here, at the aerodrome, when they should be out hunting for her younger brother's murderer? "Viceroy, glaring at the soldiers will get you no closer to our brother's killer." A voice said from behind her. Cornelia relaxed somewhat and turned to view the concerned and saddened face of her younger sister, Euphemia li Britannia looking up at her. Ever since the broadcast, her sister had been in a very depressed mood. She rarely ate and barely slept after seeing what her brother was really up to, Cornelia herself could understand as she too didn't approve of her brother's actions

Cornelia had to restrain herself from pulling her sister into a comforting hug or something. Euphie and she really were two physical opposites. Where Cornelia was regal, Euphie was elegant. Where Cornelia was imposing, Euphie was delicate. Where Cornelia was coldly beautiful, Euphie was adorably cute.

Their hair was also a point of similarity, yet even there the difference was obvious. Cornelia's was dark pink and was shoulder length, whereas Euphie's hair was a lighter, brighter pink that cascaded down to the small of her back.

Personality wise, they were different as well. Euphie was kind-hearted, naïve and innocent, while her older sister maintained a cool, distance façade with everyone except those closest to her and was ruthless as they come. Despite their many and varied differences, the li Britannia sisters were very close, even more so since their two favourite siblings' deaths united them in grief. Lelouch and Nunnally had been sent to Japan as hostages and their father had sacrificed them like pawns, as if they had not even existed, during the Second Pacific War ten years prior. At the time Cornelia's mother forbid her from contacting her siblings in any way, they still got letters and missed phone calls but with Catherine hovering over her, she could do nothing. She was greatly disheartened when after five months, the letters stop showing up, no missed phone call, nothing.

After news of their deaths had reached them, she was near inconsolable for a full week, Euphie not much better. She felt so weak, how this could had happened and she just stayed back. She prayed ever night to them, begging for their forgiveness, hoping that they were happy in heaven with their mother but it didn't alleviate the pain of losing them, never being able to finally see Lelouch beat Schneizel in chess, never being able to see Nunnally pose for Clovis to paint, those happy moments were gone.

It wasn't till about a year after their secret funerals that she dared to open the letters. At the time, Euphie was with her as well as she refused not to be present as she opened up what may have been their last words from them. The first couple were sad to hear, how they were nothing more than prisoners, how he and some boy weren't getting along. The next were not much better as they him asking for Nunnally if they could sent something back. As they rad on, they saw as the negatives started to crawl deeper into the sweet boy, the letters would reflect his emotions as he wrote them as they could see he started getting desperate for contact with family, how she sent letters to all the siblings he was close to but none replied. The final ones drove them both to tears as he begged, the proud and noble son of Marianne the flash begged to them to send something, anything to let them know they were missed. Euphie ran out of the room in tears when she read the last letter they ever got from him. It was a short one but impactful none the less

" _I didn't want to believe it, I wanted to believe we were family, that mother was wrong when she told she told me your may turn on us. But now I see those were the foolish illusions of a naïve child. You all have shown us your true colours, we know what he are to you. Not family, not friends…we are nothing but liabilities to you people. I have seen the Britannia from the eyes of the world and I now know just how twisted you have begun. War is coming, I know asking you to stop it would be pointless, after all don't all you royals love spilling blood and working those born lower than you to death for fill your own pockets? This is the last you will hear from Lelouch and Nunnally vi Britannia, we have thrown away any and all relations to you people much like you did to us. I will hunt down whoever killed my mother, and I WILL destroy them all and if you and any other royal are found to be connected to it…May heaven have mercy on your souls as I cast them to the lowest pits of hell."_

 _Signed Lelouch the Abandoned_

The cold nature of which he denounced any connections to them as strangers, enemies even cut deeper than any other wound. She couldn't fathom the thought they (he) thought she had anything to do with Marianne death but she couldn't complain, they were alone to fend for themselves in a world that was cruel. After this, she couldn't find in herself to visit Marianne grave, what right did she have to when her children died alone and scared after she promised to always look out for them? Euphie still called Millicent every now and them but she stayed to herself. She knew her father wouldn't hesitate to use Euphie in such a way as he did Lelouch and Nunnally, So to make sure this wouldn't happen, Cornelia had taken Euphie with her to every posting after that, rarely letting her out of her sight.

"Yes, I suppose you're right, Euphie. " Cornelia replied to her sister's remark, "But it's just irritating to see all these soldiers here rather than doing their jobs, I thought they were supposed to be looking into this mess Clovis left for us."

"The bureaucrats and nobles here wanted to throw a banquet to celebrate your arrival." Said a light skinned mad with light brown hair and blue eyes as he jogged over and saluted both imperial princesses, "Lord Jeremiah slapped them down and sent them scurrying. Welcome to Area 11, you're Highnesses."

"Sounds like Jeremiah Gottwald still remembers my dislike of pomp then." Cornelia remarked dryly, "And you are?"

"Altgrave Kewell Soresi, Your Highness, the Temporary Sub-Viceroy." Kewell replied as eh dropped the salute, "Lord Jeremiah sent me along with an armoured escort to ensure escort you are well protected. He wants to update you on the progress on the hunt for Zero."

"Excellent!" Cornelia said with a nod of approval, maybe this area wasn't full of incompetent fools and cowards. "It's good to see being in such a provincial Area hasn't dulled Gottwald much. Lead on."

"Of course. This way, you're Highness." Kewell said as she led them to an armoured limousine alongside four Sunderlands and held the door for the two princesses. Once he followed them in after them, the limo drove off.

Seeing a questioning look on Cornelia's face, Kewell said, "Lord Jeremiah ordered me not to let the two of you out of my sight until I had you both safely inside the Viceroy's Section of the Administrative Building. Paranoia is the word of the day after Zero somehow able to get as deep in as he did and attack Prince Clovis."

"Naturally." Cornelia nodded, "What has Gottwald done to improve security thus far?"

"He has reinstated the normal security measures and is currently reviewing them for holes." Kewell said.

"'Reinstated'?" Euphie parroted, confused by the word. "What do you mean?"

Kewell looked slightly uncomfortable at the question. "His Highness didn't appreciate all of the intrusive measures in place to safeguard him. On his second night here after assuming his post as Viceroy, he used his Royal Privilege to have a great number of them either dismantled or greatly toned down in scale. Or so the records say."

"Idiot!" Cornelia fumed, "He was a Prince! He should have been used to such things! He grew up with them!"

"Lord Jeremiah said much the same thing but after reviewing some of the evidence of his highness'…personal activities it seems he may have been covering for them." Kewell said uncomfortably as he was one of the few who still couldn't believe Clovis would do such a thing.

A frown crossed Cornelia's face. "Yes, we certainly need to look into that." She muttered bitterly, "The fact that a lot of those measures were simple common sense and weren't put in place until after Lady Marianne was murdered does not sit well with me."

Euphie laid a hand on her sister's shoulder and sent a fleeting look at Kewell that screamed 'change the subject!' at him.

"Oh yes." Kewell opened the briefcase on the seat next to him and pulled out a clipboard with a couple of sheets of paper on it. "Princess Euphemia, would you believe me of my post as Sub-Viceroy?"

"Ah….certainly." Euphie said, taken off guard by the bizarre topic change. "How?"

Kewell handed her the clipboard and a pen. "All you need to do is sign here, here, here…and here." He pointed out the relevant sections. Euphie signed in the relevant areas and handed the form back to Kewell, who signed his own relevant sections as well.

"Congratulations Your Highness. You are now the official Sub-Viceroy of Area 11, with all the migraine inducing paperwork that the position entails." Kewell said seriously as he struggled to hold in the laughter as the pink haired princess adopted a look of sheer horror.

"Why do you say that like you've been buried in it?" she asked.

"Because I have." Kewell replied frankly. "Although Prince Clovis did most of his paper there was still some that were uncompleted along with all the paperwork this whole fiasco has generated. I have been helping Lord Jeremiah deal with it the best I could but…That was after I filled out about 20 forms to become the Temporary Sub-Viceroy's position."

"20 whole forms?" Euphie and Cornelia almost looked green at the thought.

"Don't worry, Your Highnesses, that was because I not a member of high nobility." Kewell told Euphie, "You just took my job with four signatures. Much to my relief, I assure you."

"I assume that you will be returning to the Purebloods now then?" Cornelia asked relief at not having to fill out endless swathes of paperwork showing in her voice.

"That…is a bit complicated, you're Highness." Kewell said, now looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"Oh?" Cornelia asked, the man was obviously unsettled by something

"It's one of the things that Lord Jeremiah wishes to discuss with you, Your Highness. I can't say anything else other than I will go where ordered." Kewell replied as he tried to avoid the gaze of the fabled 'Goddess of Victory.

Cornelia was curious now, but then the limo just pulled into the secure garage of the Area 11 Administrative Building, so she put her questions off until she met Gottwald.

The Viceroy's Office, once Kewell had bowed them in and closed the doors behind the sisters, was slightly too large for Cornelia's taste, but she could work in it since he met Guilford and Andreas could use the space as well. What really drew her attention was a large family portrait on the right hand wall. It had a black haired woman in a blue dress, a black haired boy in neat clothes and a brown haired girl in a pretty dress smiling out of it.

"Lady Marianne…Lelouch…Nunnally…" Cornelia whispered at the faces that had been silenced all those year ago before she turned to look away in shame, something Euphie caught.

"His Highness Prince Clovis painted that piece himself and purely from memory." Jeremiah said as he walked into the room from a side door, "I had it placed here to remind me to never again stray from the path they wanted. Greetings. Princess Cornelia. Princess Euphemia. It is good to see you both again." Jeremiah said as she saluted them both.

"Margrave Gottwald." Cornelia nodded in greeting, "Clovis painted this? He was better than I remember him being." 'Shame he wasn't nearly as kind as we all thought'

"That's what the man in charge of His Highness' personal art gallery said." Jeremiah confirmed, "You must admit, the likeness is uncanny."

"Such gentle colours…" Euphie muttered as she walked up to the painting for a closer look, wondering how the man who did this would ever be commit of such crimes against his fellow man.

Cornelia reluctantly turned away from the painting to look at Jeremiah. "I believe I have you to thank for not being buried under bureaucrats and their attempts to fawn over me as soon as I stepped off the plane?" She asked as she hated ass-kissers with a passion.

"I merely recalled my time as a Royal Guard under your command, Your Highness." Jeremiah replied, a hint of a smile on his face, "Your dislike of pomp was almost legendary amongst us Guard."

"I'm glad to have left a lasting impression on you." Cornelia replied dryly, "As pleasant as this trip down memory lane is, I believe you wished to brief me on the progress in the hunt for Zero and the investigation?"

Jeremiah became serious at once. "Of course. Do you wish to wait for your knights to arrive or shall we start now?"

"Dalton and Guilford are ensuring that our Gloucesters and Sunderlands are stowed correctly and will be for some time." Cornelia replied, "So brief me now and I'll be able to brief my knights as well. Euphie, you pay attention as well." Her sister moved over to a chair and sat down with a sigh. Cornelia also took a seat and gestured for Jeremiah to begin.

"Yes…Let's see…." Jeremiah mused, "Well, to start with, there have been next to no indications of Zero in the last ten years. It's almost as if he appeared overnight, around the beginning of March this year."

"Beginning of March, not the battle of Shinjuku?" Cornelia asked.

"It appears that before he showed himself in the light of day, Zero of his 'knights' were taking out other resistance groups here in Area 11." Jeremiah reported as he brought out some of the files they had on the black knight's earlier movements.

"Why would he target his own allies?" Euphie asked confused and hurt he would kill his own people.

"Because against popular belief, the rebels groups don't get along well which we have determined comes down to methods and pride. The groups Zero targeted were some of the cells which target civilian targets as they don't have the power to take on military ones. After he made his announcement to the world, it had become clear he will targets _anyone_ who targets the 'weak'" Jeremiah reported as he gave them the reports to see for themselves, each group taken out was the textbook definition of a terrorist down to targets preferences.

"So he's a man of his word?" Euphie asked, she wanted to know this for sure.

"So it would seem" Jeremiah told them, biting back the urge to swear at him being complimented for not lying.

"Was there any sign of him before hand? No-one just appears, especially someone as well trained and equipped as him. Were there no secret gatherings? No unrest among the Numbers?" Cornelia asked in disbelief.

"The Elevens are always in a state of unrest." Jeremiah said frankly, "From what I gathered, Prince Clovis blamed them for the deaths of Prince Lelouch and Princess Nunnally, so there has been almost no urban renewal, other than what was necessary to build the Settlement, in the ten years since the conquest, hence why the ghettos here are some of the largest in the empire." Jeremiah told them as he pulled out a thumb-drive with the relevant data and plugged it in to his desktop to show them.

"As to secret meetings, there are countless resistance groups meeting in secret nearly every day, more than in almost any other Area. Mostly, we bribe a member to feed us information on what they do, which mostly amounts to them complaining how awful Britannians are, or minor acts of vandalism such as tagging buildings and trains. Even so, we only have ears in about a hundred groups Area-wide and none in the Japanese Liberation Front or Blood of the Samurai." Jeremiah told them before he signed in exhaustion as the workload was staring to get to him.

"Simply put, we were overwhelmed by what was demanded of us and were spread too thin to detect Zero's arrival, creation or movements." Jeremiah reported as they were pulled too thin as is. Cornelia and Euphie stared at Jeremiah. Part of them was amazed he had recalled that load of information without notes and part of them was appalled by how bad things were in Area 11.

"That is ridiculous!" Cornelia spat out, "Those groups should have been eliminated, not just tracked!"

"Prince Clovis was of the opinion that they were of no threat to the forces he had in place which in most cases is true as most of the cells don't even process knightmares or RPGs of their own, although I think the real reason was that he was worried about being recalled to the Homeland if his Area was constantly a hive of military activity." Jeremiah said bluntly.

"That…does sound like Clovis." Euphemia said hesitantly.

"Yes, unfortunately it does." Sighed Cornelia, "And we have to reap what he has sown. Continue, Margrave."

"Yes your Highness. One month and two weeks ago, The Purebloods along with the other forces received orders to mobilise in pursuit of an unregistered group of Eleven Terrorists who had stolen a weapon of horrific abilities." Jeremiah said.

"The supposed poison gas, yes?" Cornelia asked him, if this was how it started how did those rebels even get their hands on it? The JLF or BoTS maybe but some no-name group?

"It seems so as in hindsight, I wondered why he sent so many to capture it but at the time we were not informed on the cargo till after the battle." Jeremiah told her as he did wonder why he was sent out but at the time didn't care.

"We have already been informed on the battle and aftermath Jeremiah, have the Black Knights done anything since?" Euphie asked as Andreas already gave them the mission report Jeremiah submitted.

"Yes, aside from the original broadcast which had gone viral with around 68 million views and rising, the Black Knights have hacked into eight different weapons manufactures here and in Area 12. From what we could gather they appeared to have stolen the schematics for the Portmans and Gloucester while at the same time sending a crippling virus which has resulted in all eight factories to be out of commission. The best estimate places their re-opening in around 2 weeks."

"SO they know to go after the industry as well." Cornelia muttered as this wasn't the run of the mill group if they knew to cut the supply of arms first before attacking.

"Yes, the Black Knights have been doing their homework. They have also taken responsibility for the assassinations of 24 different government officials which they then exposed to be corrupt. In one instance they were able to sneak into the lady Spears home and kill her in her sleep without killing or alerting any other person on site." Jeremiah reported as he handed them the file which the information of the police investigation findings.

"They assassinate people too?" Euphie asked him appalled by such tactics.

"It appears so but because of who the targets are along with their crimes, the people aren't too upset about it, most reports are just about people complaining about the bodies being hung from public places." Jeremiah told her as sad as it is, Clovis and his little side project ruined the government reputation in the eyes of the common man, being shown to have corrupt elements isn't helping them as reporters swarm their teams before they can do anything.

"I have a sick feeling that says that wasn't the only thing they did, was it?" Cornelia muttered aloud.

"Afraid not, about a week ago, a shipment of Sunderlands coming in through port Shizuoka was raided." Jeremiah revealed, surprising the two royals as shipment records were purposely kept to a need to know basic to stop things like this.

"How many were stolen?" Euphie asked.

"Not stolen, from the reports, it seems that they sunk the ship with all cargo and personal on board. About 20 Sunderlands and about 80 crew gone." Jeremiah told them grimly as he pulled out the reports the divers complied about the wreck, only around 30 bodies were recovered.

"Why would they sink them rather than take them?" Cornelia asked, heedless of her sister disgust at such a loss of life.

"I think this may be the reason your highness, please watch this video. It was the only one we could salvage from the destroyed 12 Sunderlands on scene." Jeremiah said as he played a clip on his monitor which he turned to face them. On the screen were numerous black and grey knightmares fighting against the imperial forces but what stuck out as the two royal as the fact that the machines attacking them were far more stream lined than the bulky Sunderlands, appearing to be based off armoured ogres of old folklore going by the fact their heads only had one glowing red eye, they also looked to be around half a metre taller than their Imperial counterparts and were using a rifle much larger than the Sunderlands. It was…amazing in a way to see just 4 of them take down 22 Sunderlands.

"What are those?" Cornelia asked, she didn't like it when word reached of the E.U developing their own knightmares to replace their Panzer Hummel's as it meant for brutal fighting, could these be those new machines.

"Unconfirmed Black Knight knightmares it seems going by their colour scheme. From what you can see they match Sunderlands in most performance but seem to fire a different type of rifle." Jeremiah told them as he pressed a button which showed their predicted stats versus those of a factory fresh Sunderland and it was plain to see that it matched in everything except armaments and speed which it was better in.

"How so?" Cornelia asked, every detail was needed to properly fight this new threat to the crown.

"Well as you know, all out knightmares use the standard 45mm anti-armour assault rifle which fires both HE and AP rounds but these models fire what looks like 55mm rifles which makes them much more powerful than what we field." Jeremiah told them as he gave them the ballistic report for the shells found on scene.

"So this new group is really something. Fine then, what about the report on my brother activities?" Cornelia asked, wishing to move on to the next topic.

"That's has made more progress but not much." Jeremiah told them as the investigation had yet to learn anything of substance.

"Explain." Cornelia ordered.

"We were able to determine that Prince Clovis used another man, a baron Cobalt. The company that was producing our unknown was registered to a Cobalt house that after investigation revealed to just have been a cover for Prince Clovis to carry it out. I was able to get in contact with the baron in Area 13, he was willing to tell us what he knew seeing how the prince was nearly killed for this. He was able to supply the names of three members of the staff there." Jeremiah reported as he took out all the files they had the case so far which Euphie started looking into as soon as could, needing to see the truth.

"What do you mean unknown, was this the supposed 'victim'?" Euphie asked as she wasn't one to believe the media like most and wanted cold hard facts.

"Yes your highness, this was confirmed as after the battle, the remains of the truck were recovered and after examination showed that there was no gas in that capsule, the only thing we found was unidentified strands of human hair as well as hair of an individual of eleven descent." Jeremiah told them.

"I see…so it was true." Euphie said, sadden that her brother really was the monster Zero made him out to be.

"That's what the information points to your highness. Also there appears to be more at work here than we originally thought. Of the three we identified to be connected to this, two of them were found dead, both seemed to have been killed. One was found to have cyanide in her system suggesting she was poison and the other was strangled in his sleep. The poison victim was found to have been killed 12 hours before he was found a month ago, the second was found to have been killed 3 days before discovery a month ago as well." Jeremiah told them as Cornelia was reading the autopsy report as he said this and saw it matched up.

"My god, who would target their own people?" Euphie asked, that wasn't the actions of the country she knew, those were the actions of a criminal family.

"Someone who doesn't want to be found out. Were you able to gain any from the man you were able to bring in alive?" Cornelia asked him as the bodies were dropping faster than she cared to count, all because of this secret project.

"Oh yes, after some interrogation sessions, he told us the names of the scientist who were working in this Code-R project but…." Jeremiah started but stop mid-sentence and seemed to be looking for the right words.

"But what Gottwald? What happened?" Cornelia demanded, she was hoping it wasn't what she thought it was.

"They're all dead. There was an explosion in a privately owned building in Mito and the police were able to confirm the bodies of all the staff. It appears a bomb went off, collapsing the building on top of them." Jeremiah told them both.

"Oh no, it can't be" Euphie nearly gagged at the thought of such a demise.

"It as I say your highness. Over 20 floors of steel and concrete crushed them to death, the only person not found in the wreckage was Bartley who escaped his hospital room shortly after awakening on the 2nd of April." Jeremiah told them, as he went on to brief them on all that was going on in Area 11.

(Meanwhile)

"Come one big bro lest go!" Alice called out to Lelouch as she ran ahead of him. They both were walking down the street toward the amusement park. They have been doing things like this for the past few days, Lelouch thought she needed the pick-me-up. You see, unlike himself and Suzaku who only start their classes at Ashford University in August, Alice and Nunnally started their classes a couple weeks prior. Nunnally was doing well for herself at Ashford academy where she already joined the ballet club and made some friends. Alice on the under hand….

Due to her clearly Japanese features, she was faced much racism from the first day, she tried to be strong as to not worry them but she snapped on the fourth day when she returned to her locker to see it covered in racial slurs and other chauvinistic terms. She ran home crying that day…it took both Suzaku and Nunnally to stop him from hunting down the snot nosed brats who dare make his adopted daughter cry, when he did calme down he went to see the school principal as well as the parents of the bullies and bought it up with him them Of course the damn fools refused to see that their kids had done anything wrong and dared to argue the whole Britannian first policy on him.  
He was outraged at this but chose not to kill them, he still got his way in the end.  
You see he had created a new force power called Force Daunt, by carefully leaking out one's own force power and giving it shape with their minds and emotions, they create a spirit embodiment of this that only those the user's wishes to see can. To the parents and principal, they saw a massive black and red bipedal demon in his shadow. After he gave the old principal a heart attack from fright, he got his apologies and all the bullies were suspended for a full semester.  
Does he feel bad about giving a 70 year old man a heart attack? Not really.  
Did he enjoy watching the suppose 'superior' beings crumble and fall before him at the face of true power? Of course.  
Would he do it again? Most definitely.

Anyway the point was that he decided to spend more time around his little girl to make sure she knew she was loved…and because he loved seeing her so damn happy.

"Alright already, you don't have to rush so far." Lelouch said with a small smile as he picked up the pace and took her hand into his so she could lead him without getting to far from him. She chose for them to park. They spent hours there where he pushed her on the swings, got her ice-cream, took her to the merry go round and played other games. Lelouch cherished every moment of it.

Since he knew his war would soon kick into high gear.

 **Alright, that's this chapter over and done with. As you all just read, Shirley dad along with all his co-workers are dead, or more accurately they have been killed to cover up the Code-R research and everything it entrails so Shirley is going to be a bit broke next chapter as Lulu doesn't have his Geass to make her forget the pain so she can move on, she will have to deal with it like everyone else does.  
As you can imagine, the force in Star Wars has many uses and depending on who uses it, has many abilities to be unlocked. Lelouch is a person unlike any before him, while Suzaku may be the better fighter between the two hands down, Lelouch had discovered many different force abilities to make up for this, one of which is Force Daunt which as stated, allows the users to manifest anything they desire as to intimidate their opponents or trick them.  
It works similar to a Jedi mind trick but is much more complex in both nature and skill level needed to use it. As it takes aspects from genjutsu in the Naruto franchise, the user needs to be exceptionally strong willed to control the manifestation but also must be feeling great emotional strain such as happiness, anger or love. It's because that the user must be emotional that most Jedi can't use it as it would violate their code on emotions as their code stated 'There is no emotion, only peace' and most Sith can't use it as they are too weak willed to as they allow the darker aspects of both themselves and the force to corrupt them and turn them into heartless greedy monsters.  
As Nunnally stated earlier, Lelouch excels at the 'Control' aspect of the force while Suzaku is the best at 'Alter' with Nunnally being the best at 'Sense'. As some of all may have suspected when it was mentioned Lelouch basically used Genjutsu on those parents, a lot of Lelouch's techniques actually were inspired by the Uchiha clan and their techniques. Lelouch named most of them their Naruto name as he as rejected his Britannian heritage to the point where he even threw away his mother's maiden name and as a result, he wouldn't name his skills and techniques anything related to English. I know that he still uses this name in public but he is working as the leader of a rebel cell, he just chose it as a cover.**

 **Here are some of the force related abilities that Lelouch has either improved upon or created:**

 **Force Daunt: By carefully leaking out one's own force power and giving it shape with their minds and emotions, they create a spirit embodiment of this that only those the user's wishes to see can.**

 **Force Clone: Much like the force ability known as Doppelganger, the user if able to create near perfect copies of living creatures but unlike Doppelganger, these are capable of self-thought and understanding which makes them able to move around and interact with the environment around them like a real creature would. They are very useful in gaining information as once they are dispelled or defeated, any and all information they gathered through the five senses is sent back to the user, their only drawback is that they only last around 2 days and can't detect other force users or force related abilities.**

 **Force Madness Inducement: By leaking out the user's own dark emotions and amplifying them, the user can then send this wave of negativity at anyone in a certain radius to them which in turn makes the target act irrationally and returns to the basic fight or flight response, which ever they chose, the target is not able to use higher brain functions and lashes out or flees like an animal. The effects last anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 days depending on the mental strength and fortitude of the target.**

 **Thebes: An illusion which was intended to be used on people with high body counts. This ability manifest the ghouled formed of those the target had slain or directly ordered slain. These ghouls will then torment tha target, burying them in fear, guilt or regret over their actions.**

 **Force Cloak: An improved version of the standard, not only are the users able to mask their presence by manipulating light and sound waves but they are also capable of using a mass mind trick an anyone within a 10m radius of them so that targets minds don't register them.**


	12. Campus Life

**Well I'm on a roll lately as this is the 12** **th** **chapter I started and hopefully finished in the last 2 weeks. As the chapter names suggest, there will be no fighting between the Black Knights and Cornelia this chapter as it will focus mainly on how things are going at Ashford now that Lelouch and Suzaku are starting to school there. Yes Suzaku will face some discrimination but that's unavoidable as when he returned in R2, he was a Knight of Round had had been for the better part of a year since as far as I know, the R1 starts in August and ends in September (Way to short of a time for all that to have happened by the way) and R2 restarts in May and ends in September (Which makes a little more sense)**

 **Chapter 12: Campus life**

 **1** **st** **August 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

' _Whoever this Zero it, he isn't the run of the mill terrorist, that's for sure._

 _It's been three months since sister and I came to Area 11 to take over the governance in place of Clovis and in that time, the Black Knights haven't really stuck their heads out too much. My sister has so far destroyed four large rebel cells and around 13 smaller ones but we have yet to learn anything more about Zero or his own cell._

 _The black knights have stuck to their own mandates and have so far only attacked and destroyed those who were abusing their power to gain more. The last I checked, they assassinated another 8 politicians, 11 middle ranked officers and 15 businessmen, all of which were proven to be corrupt in one form or another and using their positions and power to make an extra pound off the suffering of others. Another thing is they seem to act like a sort of police force as they have been sighted at and have taken responsibility in stopping numerous acts of crime across the board. Gangsters; Mobsters; Drug dens; illegal whore houses (Not that prostitution is legal in any way I mind you) and recently I discovered after reading a report that they took out a large smuggling ring which was selling medical aid products meant for the Elevens on the black market (I personally approve of that as they were kind enough not to kill the leaders, they will receive their due punishments for this)._

 _All this has caused two things so far, it has caused their public support to rise as more and more of the Elevens are starting to support them and it giving sister a lot of problems as she can't find a trace of them, even from crime scenes where we know they were, they never leave anything we can use to trace them with and have yet to target any military installations so we don't even know their true strength as of yet as in all their police work, they almost exclusively make use of infantry alone with the occasional Knightmare, from what footage we do have, we have been able to determine that this new knightmare of their' is their standard much the Sunderland to us._

 _I sympathise with the Elevens and would like nothing more than to help the Black Knights by doing my part on this end to help with the corruption and incompetence within our ranks but I've been busy trying to repair public relations with the people. Cornelia had to spend the first month in officer re-ordering all the forces in the Area to make up for the japs in them due to the losses Clovis suffered. I on the other hand was left with administrative duties as many people are questioning the government which needed to be solved, it pained me to release the results of the investigative report into Code-R but it needed to be done. Once the results were made public, father took it a step further when he revoked Clovis' claim to the throne and disowned him._

 _Just like he did you_

 _Not a day goes by that I don't think of you, Come to think of it, today marks the 10_ _th_ _anniversary since Britannia declared war on Japan and started the 2_ _nd_ _Pacific War. I can't even imagine what you were feeling when no-one came for you both when the fighting started, I know that you probably hated us in your final moments but I still held on to hope that we could at least try to preserve the happiness we once shared but now brother Clovis has dishonoured both you and the Imperial family with his evil and brother Schneizel is far too busy to make time for family and Cornelia isn't the same as she once was, I see it every time I look into her eyes, the guilt and pain of your deaths still weighs heavily on her as I can barely get her to visit Lady Marianne's grave whenever we return to the Homeland._

 _Oh! But there has been some good news, Lady Nonette Enneagram, the honourable knight of nine has been sent here to help to combat the threat of the Black Knights, she and Nelly haven't really been getting along but that's just because sister is too uptight at times. We also found out the pilot of the Lancelot was actually her apprentice, it was both amusing and saddening to see sister so upset about a 'number' being allowed to pilot our only working 7_ _th_ _gen knightmare but Rai proved himself when he fought Guilford to a draw in a knightmare duel (There's also the fact that Rai and the rest of the special corps aren't in our chain of command as they work for brother Schneizel and because as a soldier directly under the command of a Knight of Round, Sister can't touch Rai unless he breaks the law)_

 _I hope that your both are happy up in heaven_

 _Your very sorry sister, Euphemia Li Britannia_

And with that, Euphie closed her diary and placed it back in her shelf. It was times like this that she wondered if she would have really been able to do anything for them. She wondered if their last moments were peaceful or were they brutal like with most of Britannia's victims. Ever since, she regretted ever listening to her mother and not keeping contact with them. Sure these days she and her mother rarely spoke unless it was of importance and it was the same with Cornelia (Their form of protest against her) but it didn't change the fact that they broke contact with their siblings. She could still feel the sting Lelouch's last letter to them bought to her. She never brought it up with Milly whenever they spoke as Milly wasn't able to keep contact with them after the passing of Lady Marianne as the Ashford's fall from grace and Lelouch and Nunnally's banishment made it impossible. Maybe if she found time she could visit her, the Ashford did set up shop here in Tokyo.

Oh who was she kidding, she looked back at her desk and saw it as still piled up with paperwork, how Clovis ever managed this will forever remain a mystery to her. It didn't help that sister was out hunting another cell and conveniently left all her work for her to finish.

Oh her sister will have hell to pay for this.

(Meanwhile)

'Where that sudden chill down my spine come from' Cornelia wondered to her herself as she commanded her forces against this new target, what was their name again, the blood of the Samurai?

Anyway they weren't too bad by eleven standards, their base was what appeared to be a hollowed out mountain with numerous openings for their anti knightmare cannons to pop out on rails and fire on aggressor. The only problem was that fact they were using such large cannons to take on knightmares, if Cornelia wasn't as serious as she was, she would laugh at the idea. She had brought only 9 knightmares and 30 tanks and already they had broken through their defences. She herself had went around the back and destroyed quite a few cannon placements before she found herself at the top of the hill (pun intended)

"Relics of a forgotten age." Cornelia said to herself as she dodged their fire with practiced ease before leaping into the air in her custom Gloucester, while airborne she fired her assault rifle at one nest and her right slash harken at another. Both were destroyed within moments.

" **Dalton, in here you said, correct?** " Cornelia asked as he landed in a destroyed gun placement, facing the entrance way.

" **Yes my lady, shall we accompany you?** " Andreas asked.

" **Not for this level of resistance**." Cornelia told him as she speed along the tracks into the inner structure.

" **Understood**." Andreas said before the radio cut. At the same time, Cornelia arrived in the centre here she saw at least to dozen Elevens loading and moving supplies.

" **Surrender at once you feeble minded Elevens!** " Cornelia ordered over the speakers as none of them had anything that could ever hope to damage never-mind destroy it, however they didn't seem to care

"Down with the Crown!" they all yelled as they drop whatever they were holding and opened fire with SMGs, even with all of them firing on her, it didn't even scratch the paint. Meanwhile in the cockpit.

"[sign] I was hoping that this was a Black Knight hideout but I don't see anyone wearing their uniform." Cornelia said to herself as she surveyed the room and didn't see anything of value sticking out, maybe the forensics will find something after this mess.

'This is getting me no-where, that bastard Zero knows how to hide, that's for sure.' Cornelia though to herself as she was getting sick and tired of all these operations with no result.

" **Vermin, rot like the filth that you are**." Cornelia ordered them as she opened fire with a rifle.

(At Ashford)

Things were lively in the Ashford Academy, something that happened regularly with Milly in charge. The rumours had started to spread about new transfer students. The fact that Milly Ashford herself had met them and stated the will be fun to have around did not help: everyone acquainted with her knew that the blonde never did anything without some…deviated goals in mind. Who was they? Where did they come from? Which noble family did they have connections to and whose children were they? All Milly told the school at board was that they were both boys, but were they handsome?

"Everyone is so excited." Shirley Fenette mumbled. "They haven't even met then yet."

"Order! Order!" The teacher barked. God, what was wrong with kids those days? Back in his day…no, no such thoughts: the moment you start to use the phrase 'back in my day' means that you have become old. He was only 30 years old, damn it! "As you know we have a two new transfer students. Greet them politely. You may enter."

A nervous Lelouch and Suzaku were waiting outside the classroom. "It's only a temporary arrangement so we have to make sure to not attract too much attention." Lelouch said to his best friend who nodded his head in return. "And don't recreate the same situation of the other world: hordes of adoring fangirls ready to worship him as a god and male students without a girlfriend thirsty of his blood." Suzaku told him as they had dealt with fangirls in the past and on one occasion, a dude who mistook Lelouch for a girl (which left Suzaku and Nunnally laughing at his expense for three months). The first impression is what counts the most: normality is the key. No arrogance, no shyness, go there, show up with a mere neutral greeting and smile. A normal smile, one who communicates joy at the prospect of a new experience. They will say 'Oh.' And I will be one among many, after they heard the professor they both took a deep breath and opened the door.

The students were, well, stunned to say the least: the first one was a very handsome boy of tall height but somewhat thin build, almost girly. He walked with an elegance and subconscious arrogance fit for kings and emperors. His hair was long, coming down past his ears and covering his left eye a little. His features were smooth and graceful, a pair of violet eyes that seemed to have been carved from the finest amethyst. The second was none the less just as handsome as the first but were different reasons. He wasn't as tall was a first one, being a little shorter handsome young adult, his frame was much more muscular than his friend but not overly so, like his friend he moved with a confidence about himself but put out a much more approachable and friendly air to himself. His brunette hair was well taken care of and shorter than the Lelouch's but still quite wild looking. His features were much more chiselled and manly which was an immediate plus in his favour with the girls (even if he was a number), a pair of green eyes that looked as playful as they did serious. Coming next to the chair the two both performed a slight bow of greeting.

"Nice to meet you all. My name is Lelouch Lamperouge, I'm 20 and I just moved here and will be joining you all here at Ashford University. I hope to get along with you all." His voice was like the sound of a crystal bell, able to dispel all doubt and discomfort from the hearts. The voice of a born leader. He concluded with a smile, the eyes mirror of his intentions.

"It is nice to meet you all, like my fellow newbie-I'm new in Tokyo and will be joining the student body here at Ashford University. My name is Suzaku Kururugi." Suzaku introduced himself with a small smile that made the more zealous learners less likely to attack him and calm down the students in general about himself. They both waited in silence for the reactions of the class, praying for something good but alas, it seemed as if the force want with them this day

All the girls (and some boys) squealed "Kyaaah!", with little hearts for eyes, while the rest of the guys (except Rivalz) flamed with killing intent as they dating prospects just took a serious hit, most of them were muttering 'Dammit'.

'EPIC FAILURE!' The two friends mentally screamed keeping the façade.

'Everything went wrong! Why? There is a flaw in my plans? Where? Wait a minute, it is a guy here? Noooo, it cannot be that bad, right? Why Oh why do I look so much like my mother for God's sake!' Lelouch screamed to himself was he kept up his smile.

'Why do I have a feeling that Kaya is laughing her ass off at the fact she may get that threesome…wait a minute, those two are guy-Oh HELL NO. I ain't doing no devil' three-way or taking any in the butt!' Suzaku ranted and moaned in his head as he waved to the class, luckily for them, the teacher was just as sick of this as they were and broke it up. The teacher felt coming a headache. He told Lelouch to go sit next to Rivalz in the middle row and Suzaku to sit in the front by the window. As he sat down the other teen greeted him with joy. "Welcome to Ashford. I have to admit, this was the most impressive entry I've ever seen." Rivalz told him with a smile and a pat on the back.

"Yeah…" Lelouch replied as he imagined God laughing his ass off to his despair. He however appreciated that the other was treating him in a normal way. "Sorry to have caused such an uproar, it was not my intention."

"Are you kidding? It was fun!" He was honest: since he had met Lelouch his instinct told him that it was worth being around each other: the jet-black hair boy belonged to the category of those to whom always happen interesting things. And his instinct was never wrong.

Except of course when it came girls.

The rest of the lessons proceeded, despite the two new student's attempts to consolidate their reputation of the school's new idols. The two of them didn't have the same classes so they ended up only meeting again during lunch hour. They sat by themselves on the school's roof enjoying their bento lunches in peace and quiet.

"So…how did go for you?" Suzaku asked they ate.

"It was hell." Lelouch moaned as he fell on his back and starred into the clouds.

"Can't have been as bad as my day." Suzaku counted.

"Oh really? Wanna bet?" Lelouch asked as he turned to look at his friend and brother in all but blood.

"I'll take you up on that, how were your first classes?" Suzaku asked

"Oh well that went a little something like…

English Literature: The teacher found it 'rebellious' that I openly said that Romeo and Juliet were idiots who didn't know what love was, this just made my look like the 'class rebel'.

French Literature: The teacher was quite pissed with me for talking in class so she made me lecture the class on our new semester novel topic, _Madame Bovary_ , I but she's still shocked that I already read the damn thing and explained it to the whole class like I was a teacher.

German Literature: Most of the literature club now hates me because I was all 'friendly' with the teacher, not my fault we both like Hyperion.

Philosophy: 'How the hell does that kid now both ancient Greek and Roman philosophy?' was the question I'm pretty sure the teacher wanted to ask when I left that class and will most likely stay with them for a while."

"What's with all the Literature, you to major in languages or something?" Suzaku asked as he didn't think his friend was into that kind of stuff…but then again they never really had these subjects back on Mars.

"Not really, I just wanted stuff to keep me entertained and mentally challenge me. That was my day, how was yours?" Lelouch answered as he sat up and continued to eat his lunch before he got cold.

"Oh I'm pretty sure my day was worst. It started out with…

Mechanics: Easy enough but I did have to worry about all the eyes on me, they were acting like I would blow up and take the class with me or something.

Metallurgy: I don't know what there were so many girls in that class that were watching me like a piece of meat, afterwards I got a 'threatening' note to 'lay off the cultured women and stick to eleven trash'

Geography: I don't know why they were so surprise that the 'eleven' know so much about the landscape of Japa-oh sorry Area 11. Racist fools.

Geometry: I'm pretty sure the class hate me cause every time they asked me a question hoping I wouldn't know the answer, I answered correctly each and every time.

"Hate mail already, man you work fast!" Lelouch snickered at his friend's misfortune.

"Laugh all you want, when you start getting that stuff, we'll see who laughing then." Suzaku muttered as this wasn't the reactions he was hoping for.

"Probably me but I can so you point there." Lelouch counted as he waved around his apple slices on his fork.

"Haha! So this is where you two run off to." A familiar voice called out from behind them, surprising them both as they both turned to face it.

"Rivalz? What the devil are you doing here?" Lelouch asked as he didn't think anyone would find them up here just yet.

"Looking for you two of course, Milly was wondering where you went. Why don't you came down to have lunch with the student council?" Rivalz asked as he stepped out of the doorway.

"I don't know, we don't feel like getting mugged by our haters…" Lelouch told him as he had no interest of those people finding him.

"Oh don't worry about that, we eat by the club house, members and their guests only so you don't have to worry about it." Rivalz told them as he noticed how some of the more…jealous students were treating the two of them.

Well if that the cause I don't see why not." Suzaku said as he pulled himself to his feet and helped Lelouch do the same.

"Great! This way gentlemen, we don't have all day." Rivalz cheered as he led them back down the stairwell towards the student council building.

(Later)

"Wait, wait a moment, Milly you mean to tell me you're married!?" Lelouch yelled as he was just told a bombshell, they had been with the council for a while now and each of them had finished their meals and were now just talking when Nina let it slip that the president was a married woman.

"Yes, have been the last three years." Milly told him with a small smile as she expected he would this kind of reaction, Suzaku's was more tamed as he didn't know Milly like Lelouch did but he was none the less surprised.

"…Please tell me there are no little Milly's running around." Lelouch begged, he couldn't handle that much Milly, hell he could barely handle Kaya and Milly separately!

"Of course not, I want to finish my master's before I start pumping out kids." Milly replied as she laughed off his plea, she did want kids if only now to dump them on him and go out for dinners, leaving the poor banished prince to play baby-sitter.

"I still can't believe I lost out to that pretty boy." Rivalz muttered bitterly as she played with his empty bowl by poking it with his spoon.

"Oh hush Rivalz, you know I love you." Milly told him before she kissed him right in front of them, something he didn't care for as she returned it with equal favour.

"Why did she just kiss him if she's married?" Suzaku asked as this was highly confusing to them, the rest of the council weren't as shocked as he thought they would be and rather were acting like this was normal.

"Well it was an arranged marriage, Milly parents wanted to climb back up the ranks of nobility so." Shirley explained as she saw that Nina wouldn't and the other two members were…busy.

"So they sold off their only daughter like a prized mare?" Lelouch finished with a deadpanned face as he figured something like this would happened but figured Milly would fight her way out each time.

"Yeah, she used to think that to, maybe she still does." Shirley told him with a pouty frown as he made it sounds much worse than it was.

"What changed?" Suzaku asked as this turning into something very interesting.

"I actually met the guy, Earl Asplund wasn't what I was expecting, and that's for sure." Milly jumped right back in, leaving a dazed and pleased Rivalz to pick up the pieces of his mind.

"I don't think he was what any of us were expecting." Nina said aloud getting everyone bar Rivalz attention…something she did not like.

"What? Was he the perfect gentlemen or something?" Lelouch asked sarcastically, it would take a near superhuman to keep Milly pleased.

"Or something, see before I met him I had only seen suitors who were either twice my age, complete perverts or both. Lloyd wasn't like that at all. He was in his early 20s when we meet and I was 18. He wasn't even interested in me either sexually or romantically." Milly told him with a smile as she remembered her own confusion when meeting the oddball of a noble.

"Then why did he propose this whole thing?" Suzaku asked as if he didn't even know her, why would he extend a marriage contract.

"He didn't, like myself his parents did it but because they wanted an heir to the family name." Milly told him as she knew her 'husband' was more into his work than women in general.

"Yeah, I heard that the Asplund family controls more than a few gold and silver mines in the empire. That's a lot of money." Lelouch said as he remembered thinking of playing one if this Earl person but chose not to when he found out he doesn't gamble, like at all.

"Yep so anyway, in our first meeting he tells me that he agreed to it because my family has something he wanted." Milly said as she took a sip of her half-finished tea.

"Which was?" Suzaku pushed as what would such a person want from her?

"The Ganymede, Lloyd is one the empire's best knightmare and weapons developers and he wished to get his hands on the data and knightmare to better his own creations. I was shocked at first but he laid down a deal that was the best I would have gotten otherwise." Milly revealed as she saw the flash of anger at the mention of his mother's knightmare being given away like that in Lelouch's eyes before he covered it up.

"Is that right, he married you for that old thing?" Lelouch asked, playing off any connections he had towards it as he didn't think Milly had told the rest of the group about who he really was just yet

"Yep, since he wasn't into me we made the deal to act like a couple at functions and all that but we don't have to live together, the added bonus was that I was free to be with anyone I wanted and even if our folks found out about it, there wouldn't be anything they could do about it since we both agreed to it." Milly bragged as this arrangement was a perfect way of getting back at her parents for caring more for their social status than daughter as she was pretty sure her mother knew but the old hag couldn't do anything about it.

"…So the guys lets you cheat on him with Rivalz?" Suzaku asked as this was certainly an odd deal she had going for her.

"Cheating applies that I'm trying to hide it from my husband, you should meet him sometime Lulu, I have a feeling you two found get along just fine." Milly counted as she wagged her finger at him with a signature smile that spelt doom for however she wanted to embarrass. They talked a little longer about stuff and Milly apologized for Kallen who couldn't make it to class that day but promised they will have their talk as soon as she was well enough. They were just leaving when Milly stop Lelouch by the door.

"Hey Lelouch, can you stay behind for a sec, there's something I would like to talk with you about." Milly asked him as she grabbed his arm as he made his way to the door with the rest of them.

"Sure, I hope it won't take too long, I got to get to my Geometry lecture soon, I don't need all the teachers thinking of some kind of troubled rebel or something." Lelouch told her as he was not in the mood of making a name for himself, that meant too much people would notice whenever he was gone or what it was doing.

"Don't worry, it won't be long." Milly assured him with a wave of the hand.

"Alright then, see you guys later." They waved to their friends who left to carry on with their day, leaving the two alone.

"So what would you like to talk about?" Lelouch asked her as he didn't think she would have much more to know, he had told her the prepared story of him stating in France all this time. He even had the forged documents to prove this.

"Did you have anything to do with Shinjuku?" Milly asked him, all traces of humour banished from her face as she turned to him after making sure no-one was in the corridor.

"Shinjuku, why would have I-" Lelouch tried to play it off but she wasn't having any of it.

"Save it Lelouch, we both know it won't do you any good. So I'll ask again, did you have anything to do with happened in Shinjuku last March?" Milly asked again, getting angry at his automatic response to her questions.

"…I did." Lelouch answered as he dropped any pretence of innocence.

"What did you do?"

"I led the terrorists to a crushing victory over my half-brother, stormed his command post and tried to kill him but seeing how he's still alive, I have to work on that aim of mine...or maybe it was sheer luck." Lelouch told her honestly as he knew it would be pointless and mean to her to not.

"SO that's why you all just returned on the radar on the very same day." Milly asked/said as she found it very odd that he did so.

"Not really, we had been in Area 11 for a couple weeks before that and I didn't even know about the whole thing till the truck carrying the experiment subject nearly ran me over so I followed and one thing led to another." Lelouch clarified as he continued to look the other away, not facing her

"Are Suzaku and Nunnally…?" Milly asked, afraid of the answer.

"You know as well as I do that they are involved, they were even present during the battle but Nunnally actually fought, Suzaku played over watch that time." Lelouch revealed as he turned to face her with an expressionless face.

"I had a feeling that you wouldn't be one to forget all the pain you went through, but still I had hoped that you did." Milly spoke sadly as she looked into his eyes and saw the fury burning just under the surface.

"How could I ever forgot what they did to my mother, my sister, this country, me for God's sake? Nunnally had her leg blown off and I needed organ transplants! Milly, I've spent the better part of 10 years preparing to return to wage war of revenge on the empire and I won't stop till I'm nothing but a corpse or the empire burns at me feet. Surely you must know of their sins." Lelouch reminded as his gaze turned cold as he unknowingly reached for his chest, remembering how all his organs but his liver needed to be replaced. They were memories he didn't liked to think of.

"But what about the people lulu, are you going to burn them too?" Milly asked of him with more fire than she actually felt, she had seen what war did to people, she didn't want people to needlessly suffer again. Not if she could stop it.

"Not the people if I can help it but the system that allows and promotes this wicked kind of behaviour…but I'm not foolish enough to believe that no innocent blood will be spilt, that's something no-one can stop." Lelouch told her as he turned to look out the window, purposely avoiding her upset and sadden gaze.

"IS that why you tried to kill Clovis?" Milly asked him softly as it all came crashing down on her.

"Not the main reason but it was up there, Zero exposed his crimes Milly, and he needed to face judgement for them." Lelouch told her firmly as he grasped her shoulders to get her to look him straight in the eye.

"[sign] I know that it's pointless but I still gotta try, would you be willing to stop?" Milly begged of him as she looked into his eyes, she may have known of his reasons and what was at stake but at the same time, she couldn't bear with the thought of losing them again.

"I'm afraid not Milly, I have already killed and nothing can change that but I won't forgot that there are people waiting for me…or that it's the same for my targets. See you later, I got to get to class." Lelouch told her softly before he walked out the door on his way to his next class, leaving her to her own thoughts.

'Oh grandfather, if only you were still alive, maybe you could have talked him out of this fate but it seems that the boy I once played with died all those years ago.' Milly thought to herself as she looked at a picture of herself and her before mentioned grandfather, in it was only 6 and very happy being carried on the shoulders of an equally happy old man with greying but still visible blonde hair.

 **Alright, that chapter is done, it took a while to think about what to do with the council but I remembered that Milly's parents had been trying to set her up withal those suitors and that sooner or later, one of them would stick like glue. I chose Lloyd as he isn't something to just drop his relationship status unless asked. For their little arrangement, I used the same one used on the 'Prepared Rebellion' storyline as I can see Lloyd making such a suggestion and I didn't want to bash on him too much as for we know, he could be like Sheldon when it comes to actually pleasing a women and be very good at it but rarely think about it and instead focus on his work. Not being into women doesn't mean he can't please one, it's a choice people and we see many characters in anime that are similar to Lloyd, Lelouch himself is a prime example of this never noticed Shirley's feeling till the whole 'unknowingly killing her dad and Mao screwing with her head' incident**


	13. Rainbow Siege: Hotel Takeover: Part I

**Well my readers, here it is. The 13** **th** **chapter to this story of mine and I like the reviews that I have been getting about it (Wish that there would be more so I can know what your thoughts are) and because if this, I like to keep writing this story. To respond to Review by Findarato about the pairings, Suzaku isn't paired with Euphie in this in story by any capacity as he is already dating Kaya. Kaya is just open to the idea of inviting another girl to their little night-time activities. I like the Suza/Euphie pairing as they are perfect for one another in cannon (Both being unrealistic, caring, pure-hearted people) but not here as Suzaku isn't the same as he is in cannon as for one thing, he didn't killed Genbu as he never had the chance to have that faithful conversation with him. As for the question posed by Blaze1992, not at first as it would be very hard to incorporate them into his forces as most of his fighters are still people who would freak at that so he has to slowly introduce them to help people get used to them. Anyway as I stated in a previous chapter, Reyla is pregnant and wanted to come down to earth so she'll make another appearance in this chapter and maybe the next. As you can imagine, unlike cannon. The cat hunt does not happen in this story as well as Saitama as the conditions for them to occur aren't in place (Arthur snagging his Zero Helmet, although funny as all hell).**

 **Well I hope you enjoy and please like and review.**

 **Chapter 13: Rainbow Siege: Hotel Takeover: Part I**

 **22** **nd** **August 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **On route to Lake Kawaguchi:**

"It's been a while since I've left the Tokyo Settlement, I can't wait for our fun weekend." Shirley said with a smile as she, Milly and Nina sat in a cabin on-board a speeding train, unseen by them was the ghettos and the hundreds of destitute Japanese people forced to live there.

"I booked us for the whole weekend, plenty of time to talk about cute boys." Milly said with her signature slightly perverse grin.

"Why do I have a feeling that none of those boys are your husband?" Shirley asked her with a suspicious gaze which Milly just shook off.

"He doesn't count." She responded.

"Why?" Shirley asked, confused.

"Because he is a grown man. Not cute at all." Milly told her while wiggling her finger at her. At that moment the train entered a tunnel, darkening the room and scaring Nina.

"Don't worry Nina, there's a lot of Britannian tourists at the hotel so security is just fine. It's not like we're going to the ghettos." Shirley told her as she took the sky girl's hand into her won and gave her a warm smile.

"I know but…" Nina started but stopped when Milly took her other hand.

"We'll be with you the entire time, don't worry." Milly told her to calm her.

"Thanks." Nina replied with a small smile. However they were interrupted when they heard voices outside their cabin.

"Here is your new cabin sir." One said.

"Thank you sir, once again apologies for the mess in our last one. That turn was unexpected." A familiar male voice replied.

"It's nothing sir. It won't be much of a problem to clean." The first voice said again.

"We hope so, I don't want you all working too hard on such a fine day." Another voice added, this one both kind and female in nature.

"Thank you for your concern mam, have a good day." The first voice said before they could hear the owner walking off.

"Is that Lelouch?" Nina asked as they all heard his voice on the other side of the door.

"I think so, but who is he with?" Shirley asked.

"Don't know but we can find out. What do you say ladies?" Milly said/asked as she was already up and heading for the door.

"Wait Milly-!" Shirley tried to stop her but alas, Milly be Milly. When Milly opened the door she saw that it was in fact Lelouch who was wearing a pair of blue jeans with an orange button short which had the first two buttons undone so she could see he was wearing a white shirt underneath. The women he was standing with was rather pale skinned, she was wearing a pure white sundress along with a blue jacket and sunglasses.

"Hello Lulu, funny meeting you here." Milly said with her grin firmly in place as Lelouch jumped a bit at her unexpected call.

"Milly! What the devil are you doing here?" Lelouch asked as after he took a moment to catch himself.

"Weekend gateway my dear Lulu." Milly told him.

"She calls you Lulu too?" Reyla asked with a smile as he laughed a bit at his nickname.

"Oh, oh. Now who is this tall glass of water? Don't tell me. You're Reyla." Milly said as she stepped forward to give the clearly older women a handshake.

"Why yes, yes I am. You must be Miss Ashford." Reyla answered as she shook Milly's hand with a small curtsy.

"Just Milly, Miss Ashford makes me feel old. I must say, when I learned Lulu had a girlfriend, I didn't believe this muttonhead could ever score." Milly told her as she didn't like being reminded she wasn't 17 anymore.

"Oh he was a muttonhead. Both at noticing his own and my feelings but he made up for it with his cute crush when we were younger." Reyla told her with a laugh as she remembered how badly he did at 'wooing' her, she still gave him the chance but he was terrible.

"Reyla please, can't I have this weekend without being roasted?" Lelouch asked with a frown as he thought he could get away from this kind of crap but clearly he can't.

"Think of it as punishment." Milly told him.

"For what?" He asked

"For not telling me that you were expecting." Milly told him as she pointed to Reyla's clearly notable pregnancy belly.

"That's both our faults, you see he came to the Tokyo Settlement first while I stayed in Lyon so I didn't know till about a month in." Reyla told her.

"So when did he find out?" Milly asked with a glint in her eye which somewhat worried the only male present.

"About three months ago, Reyla here wanted it to be a surprised when she showed up." Lelouch added as he remembered when she just appeared one day with the news…and how much Nunnally bugged him about making her aunt so soon.

"Meaning that you didn't tell us when you showed up for classes." Milly said as this would mean he still had more than three weeks to tell them.

"You never asked, isn't that right Shirley." Lelouch defended himself as he handed the conversational torch to the carrot head girl who he could see listening in.

"OH! Yeah, it's kinda true but you should have told us either way Lelouch." Shirley replied as she took Milly's side on this.

"I don't need my haters knowing that just yet. We're going to Lake Kawaguchi for a relaxing weekend away from all that. I want some alone time with my wife, is that so much to ask?" Lelouch grumbled to himself.

"That's great Lulu, this way we can have even more fun with two extra people." Milly said as she dragged them back towards her cabin so they can start planning group activities.

 **22** **nd** **August 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Yokohama Settlement port:**

Meanwhile, while this was going on, Under the cover of a front company bringing in Pineapples and Mangoes from E.U controlled Central Africa, Leila-in dork worker clothes, was managing a shipment of Black Knight supplies. Along with her were some of the organization Britannian members as to not draw suspicion from the port authorities. She had been at this for well over five hours but they needed to be careful with their cargo and not rush. Sometime later, she was in their warehouse where they were storing them till they could all be moved. She was sitting in her office along with Oscar and Akito. Before anyone spoke, Akito did a search of the room for any bugs or other holes while Oscar activated a signal jammer just in case he missed any. Once this was clear, they started talking.

"Well, that took more time than we thought it would." Oscar commented as he sat down and drank a cup of water.

"Yes but now all the vehicles have been safely imported from Europe. It was rather fortunate we are able to acquire them when we did." Leila said as she drank some water herself after being in the summer sun for so long.

"No kidding, by now the Ukrainian police must be wondering where all of them went." Oscar replied with a small grin as he imagined the police force wondering where the hell all that military grade hardware disappeared to.

"It's nice to have friends and informants in both high and the right places." Akito remarked, speaking for the first time that day.

"Give me a break down on the cargo." Leila ordered as she relaxed into her chair.

"Yes mam, the shipment was comprised of: 12 BTR-90 APC; 15 BMP-3 IFVs; 8 ТОС-1 Rocker Artillery Vehicles; 95 9M133 Kornet Anti-tank rocket launchers; 40 PZR Grom Portable SAM; 35 2B14 Podnos mortar placements; 37,800 standard rifle rounds and around 200 complete combat gear kits." Akito read off the shipment manifest he was given earlier.

"At this rate, we'll have enough supplies to start doing some real damage." Leila said as that was a good number to work with in the short term.

"That's good, along with the shipment of GINNs we got last week, that's around 50 knightmares' we've built up in the last 4 months." Akito informed her as he finished reading the report.

"We were support to have built up an arsenal of 120 knightmares by now." Oscar reminded them both, angry that they were behind schedule with the shipments.

"We know Oscar but we didn't take into account the Suez Canal being closed due to the rather icy diplomatic relationship between the E.U and Britannia right now." Leila told him as she didn't think the E.U would grow a backbone at this point in time.

"No kidding, Cornelia's conquest of the MEF really has them on edge now, if they don't watch themselves Turkey may be the next target, maybe Greece." Akito said as he recalled what has read about the conquest of the MEF and how Cornelia fought there.

"I agree, I can't see them attacking Spain as the Spanish have been fortifying their borders on the Mediterranean for the last three years so all that would do is lead to high cost of life on both sides." Oscar added as any attack on Spain would be idiotic at this point.

"Hey, we made up for it by importing those Attack copters didn't we. 12 birds in the air isn't something to laugh at." Leila said as she recalled reading how they got some preowned attack Helicopters from their Australian dealer.

"Especially since the colonial forces would never see it coming." Oscar added as Cornelia and this Knight of Round would not expect a rebel group to have such hardware. They were about to continue their little conversation when Leila's phone went off with a received message. This was strange as she hadn't given her heavily encrypted number to a lot of people, the ones who did have it were only supposed to call when it was urgent.

"Hmm." She said as she reached for her pocket and took out the phone to read the message.

"Something wrong?" Akito asked her.

"Its form Suzaku, it says to watch the news." Leila said as he gestured for Oscar to turn on the TV set they had set up in the office. The news wasn't what they expected.

" **How are things looking at the scene?** " The news man in the studio asked his counterpart out in the field. Surprising them as he sounded stressed.

" **I'm here in front of the Lake Kawaguchi Convention Centre Hotel. The Hotel jackers have identified themselves as the Japan Liberation Front. Members of the Sakuradite Allocation meeting, most notable Chairman James were taken hostage as well as several tourists and hotel staff** " The news woman said as she stood by the lakeside as she reported on the scene.

" **This footage was taken by the perpetrators. In it, you can clearly see Chairman James including the other hostages**." The news reporter said as they showed footage which clearly showed some of the hostage along with Milly, Shirley and another unexpected person.

(With the Japanese Liberation Front)

" **The leader of the group claims to be Lieutenant Colonel Kusakabe of the now defunct Japanese military**." The Leadership of the largest resistance movement in the area yelled at the screen as they now knew where that traitorous bastard went.

"What the hell was that fool thinking?!"

" **As you all know, Sakuradite is an essential component of high temperature superconductors and is a vital strategic resource that directly effects world security. Area 11 is the largest producer of this material-providing 70% of the world total supply. Here at the yearly national meeting of Sakuradite producers, it will determined how this resource will be distributed amongst the world's nations. It's no exaggeration to say that the outcome determines the balance of global power between Britannia and other countries. It is believed that the terrorists are using world interest in the annual gathering to their advantage by carrying out this violent hotel takeover**." The news caster finished as they switched back to studio to have a small debate about the matter.

(Inside the building as the news was airing)

"I'm Lieutenant Colonel Kusakabe of the Japan Liberation Front. This stand we're taking is for the freedom of Japan and out countrymen, even though you're not soldiers or 'nobles' such as the coward Clovis-you are still Britannians, the ones who rule and oppress us. Sit still, be quiet and you'll be fine. If you don't…" Kusakabe told the scared hostages as he stood by the door with his trusty katana blade along with two other men armed with submachines guns acting as his personal guards.

"Reyla..." Shirley muttered as she looked over the before mentioned women kneeling as comfortably as she could before she remembered how they came to this point.

(Flashback-just as the JLF stormed the hotel)

It has been chaos for the last fifteen minutes as the terrorist gathered everyone they could to be put into separate rooms to be watch them. Milly, Shirley, Nina and Reyla were still in the Ashford heir's room hen this started and have been hiding there since but they could hear the terrorist men approaching their door as they searched the rooms. "Nina, you stay here. Got it?" Reyla told the terrified girl.

"What! No! I can't-" Nina tried to disagree but Reyla put a calming hand on hers to calm her down.

"Listen, it'll be fine. As long as you keep quiet they'll never know you here." Reyla told her as she got the girl to her feet and walked her to the closet to hide her.

"But you're pregnant-" Milly tried to intervene as she would never be able to live with herself if something happened to an unborn child.

"They won't do anything to a pregnant lady as long as I do as they say. Please I need someone here when Lelouch shows up." Reyla told them all as she got up to her feet, swaying slightly as she was wobbly legs as is.

"Wouldn't he worried about you?" Nina asked as she knew he had left earlier to get some of his luggage from the front desk, they hadn't seen him since.

"He will but he knows I know a thing or two about looking after myself. Now go and hide in the closet, I'll go out with Milly and Shirley." Reyla told her as she pushed her into the closet and closed the door before walking to the door with Milly and Shirley to try and get them to believe that there was no-one else in the room.

(Present time)

"So that what she did, sounds just like her." Lelouch said as he had found Nina crawled up in a ball in the closet, he wouldn't have known she was there if he didn't sense her presence. Going by the fact she was still in there, the three women were able to convince their capturers the room was empty.

"I'm so sorry that I couldn't stop her Lelouch." Nina apologised as she tried to dry up her terrified tears.

"Trust me, she and Milly are the same as the regard of being stubborn when they have an idea in their heads. I don't think a knightmare could stop her." Lelouch told her truth be told, he wasn't angry with the women, he knew his wife and how she was with people in need, it was one of the things he loved about her.

"How are you gonna do now?" Nina asked him as he helped her to her feet.

"First things first, we need some info about them. Did they take their phones?" Lelouch asked her as he took out his phone and made sure that ring was off, he kept vibrant on just in case.

"I don't think so, let me check." Nina said as she went over to Milly beside and searched the bags and for a moment before coming up empty. "No they didn't, Milly should still have hers. Shirley took hers for repairs before we left." Nina finished.

'Sloppy, no way the JLF authorised this, a splinter group maybe' Lelouch cynical and cold minds thought as he would have thought they would want the hostages not to be able to contact the outside world. "Listen I need you to head to the kitchen." Lelouch told her he went to the door and checked to see if the coast was still clear.

"Why? That's near the lobby, eight floors down." Nina asked him as he took her hand and led her down the corridor.

"Because the kitchen would have some supplied to use like knifes, pans, oil you get the gist. We're gonna need them if we're gonna get these people out of here." Lelouch told her as he began thinking of how they would be able to pull this off.

(With Suzaku at their house)

" _Yes, I saw it."_ Suzaku said over the phone as he paced their living room, Nunnally was busy meditating on the couch, doing what? He didn't know. They had taken Alice to the mall to but some groceries and extra school supplies for her when this had event broke on the news, forcing them to rush home and place Alice in her room, distracting her with toys and music to keep her away from the less them family friendly stuff on the news.

" _He Lelouch with you now?"_ Leila said over the phone.

" _No, he went there with his wife for some alone time."_ Suzaku told her, cursing that the one weekend he was able to convince his friend to take some time off, this shit happens.

" _Can you get into contact with him? We didn't plan for this."_ Leila asked him.

" _We're trying to get into contact with him but we don't know if he's with the hostages, his phones goes off and the best thing we can hope for is that they take it, worst thing is they shoot him."_ Suzaku told her, reminding them both to the graveness of the situation they've found themselves in.

" _How the hell would two bits terrorist beat him? Hell, he could choke all of them without touching them."_ Leila asked, she has seen what he could do before and knew he wasn't to be messed with, not unless you had a lot of back-up.

" _I know he could beat the crap out of them hands down but we don't need that kind of spotlight on us."_ Suzaku told her before his phone notified him to another person calling him. "Hold on, I got another caller…Rivalz, I assume you saw the news?" Suzaku asked as he switched over to this new number.

" _Yeah I did! What the hell are we supposed to do?!"_ Rivalz sounded every bit as scared as he thought he would be, no doubt he had tried calling Lelouch earlier but couldn't get through.

" _Nothing, we have to leave this to the proper professionals."_ Suzaku told him before he did something stupid.

" _But I can't leave Milly like that!"_ Rivalz yelled over the phone, making him move it away from his ear to avoid damaging his earing.

"I get your feelings Rivalz but what can you do for them. If the police and military can't get in, no way a couple of college kids are getting in without being shot full of holes." Suzaku told him to help him see reason. He could hear Rivalz calm himself down for a moment or two before he responded.

"Yeah…yeah your right. Sorry for freaking out." Rivalz told him, sounding like he wasn't about to 'storm' the place for the women he loves, which was a good sign.

"I got it!" Nunnally yelled as she jumped up from the couch, surprising him enough to get him to jump back.

"No worries Rivalz, I gotta call you back. I'm in the middle of another call." Suzaku told him before he switched back to Leila to continue their previous conversation.

"What do you have Nunnally?" Suzaku asked her.

"I was able to connect with brother momentarily but the connections snapped before I could talk with him." Nunnally told him, happy she was able to take her Force Telepathy to the point but sadden that she couldn't do more with it.

"Do you know where he is then?" Suzaku asked her, needing more information to work with.

"Yes, He's with Nina. They somehow avoided being taken but that's all I know." Nunnally replied as they made their way to the library.

" _If he's away from them maybe I can call. You heard that Leila?"_ Suzaku asked over the phone

" _Yeah, call when you have more information, in the meantime, I'll get this stuff moved somewhere more secured seeing how security is lazed here at the docks because of this little mess. Akito will stay behind if you need to call him."_ Leila said before she cut the call.

" _Roger, talk to you soon."_ Suzaku responded as she did so before dialling another number. He waited a few tense moments for the call to get through before he heard the familiar click of someone answering.

" _Hello Lelouch."_ Suzaku said over the line, hoping it was who he thought it was answering the phone.

"… _This might be one of the few times I'm glad to hear your voice over the phone." He finally heard over the phone._

" _If you can make jokes it means you're fine dipshit. What happening down there? All we know is what the news is reporting and they don't much themselves."_ Suzaku asked as he breathed a sigh of relief that his best friend was alright.

" _Looks like a splinter groups since I don't see the JLF leadership signing off on this little mission. What are their demands so far?"_ Lelouch told him over the phone he led Nina into the women's rest room before standing outside to take the call. Luckily he would sense of Nina got close enough to the door to hear his conversation.

" _They want all JLF captives set free."_ Suzaku told him as he went down the elevator, Nunnally staying behind to take care of Alice.

"… _That's it?"_ Lelouch asked him, shocked that was all they wanted out of this little stunt of theirs.

" _That's what the news says."_ Suzaku told him as the elevator got to its destination. There was silence over the line as Lelouch processed this bit of intel before he answered back, sounding distressed.

"… _We need to move fast."_ Lelouch told him as he went over the window to see how things were going.

" _What Why?"_ Suzaku asked.

" _He didn't even ask for safe passage if (and that's a big) Cornelia did what he wanted. Cornelia has the only available bridge on heavy watch, the same with the others. From where I'm standing, I can see about 8 SAM sites so taking to the air from them is also out."_ Lelouch told him as she scanned the lakeside, spotting news vehicles all over the place along with the military. It's like the police are non-existent in this area.

" _And the water?"_ Suzaku asked over the phone, this wasn't making any sense.

" _I can see the shoreline is being watched too. Plus she has a few patrol boats at the ready near the open bridge."_ Lelouch answered as he scanned the waters and saw a lot of hardware sailing around, one of them picking up the bodies of divers who no doubt tried to get in through the water.

" _Wait a minute, if he didn't ask for a way out knowing that he couldn't fight his way out…"_ Suzaku asked as the real gravity of the situation fell upon him with a cold sweat.

" _Then it means he has no intention of walking away from this, this is suicide attack."_ Lelouch told him as that was the only logical thing that could came from this act of stupidity of patriotism to a long dead nation.

" _By the Force, but there are over 200 people there."_ Suzaku said over the phone, hoping that for once, his exiled prince of a best friend was wrong.

" _Frankly, they're all on bored time as is."_ Lelouch told him as he jumped behind a curtain and used Force Cloak to hide himself from two JLF troops patrolling. He had to hold it for around 2 minutes before they left which left him feeling winded.

" _Why, Kusakabe wouldn't kill them so soon."_ Suzaku asked over the phone.

" _Because if you two read the report I complied on Cornelia, you would know that she NEVER negotiated or given in to these types of attacks. Most of the time, she'll would send in her troops to eliminate them, hostages be damned."_ Lelouch told him, pissed that he and no doubt Nunnally didn't think his report important enough to read.

" _If that's true why not now?"_ Suzaku asked him as he knew they would never make it in time if Cornelia started shooting up the place.

" _I don't know, maybe because with all this spotlight on the actions of the nobles and royal family alike due to our little reveal of Clovis' dirty sheets, she knows she needs to move more carefully. Maybe because there are representatives from the E.U and Chinese Federation present so if she used a usual tactics, it could start a war with not one but two superpowers."_ Lelouch listed off reason why most sensible commanded wouldn't hold back any aggressive actions.

" _Even the Viceroy must know fighting a war on two fronts is a sure fire way to lose big time so I can see why she would hold back."_ Suzaku had to agree on that point as there was no way Cornelia would spill more fuel in the fire at this point.

" _I know but I suspect there's a third reason, probably the biggest one for Nelly."_ Lelouch said as he made his back to the bathroom he placed Nina in.

" _What could be bigger than a potential uprising against the nobility and a war with another world superpower?"_ Suzaku asked as those two seemed pretty big.

" _Tell me, has the government made any statements?"_ Lelouch asked even though he had a pretty good idea of the situation with them.

" _No why is that relevant here?"_ Suzaku asked over the phone, looking over his gear for their impromptu mission.

" _Because I can guarantee you that Euphemia would have made a statement by know if she could but if she was somehow one of the hostages…"_ Lelouch left it up to him to figure out the rest.

" _Holy crap, we're get there as soon as we can, ETA 2 hours."_ Suzaku said as he hung up.

Why couldn't he have a normal relaxing weekend?

(In the Supply tunnel)

While Suzaku and Lelouch made their plans of attack, Cornelia sent down a team of three Sunderlands down the underground service tunnel so that could destroy the foundation block and submerge the hotel so they could use the confusion to not only get in and rescue the hostages but kill off all the terrorists while at it. At least, that was the plan. "Enemy detected as expected. Three knightmares, presumably Sunderland models." One of the mobile weapons to crewmen reported after getting returns on the radar. Behind sat an older officer who just grinned at the news that would sent most armoured vehicle into a panic.

"Roger that, Raiko secondary start-up. Both qua linkage legs locked. SMSC(Super Magnetic Shrapnel Cannon) voltage confirmed." He ordered as the strange and unorthodox weaponised vehicle started up its charging sequence. Down the tunnel the squad leader of the three Sunderlands picked up a large object ahead if them with his factsphere.

" **It looks like these guys have some old field gun or mobile artillery, I'm picking up something big on the other end of the tunnel. Spread out, don't give them a single target**."

"SMSC Fire!" The older officer ordered as he pulled the trigger, from the barrel come a subsonic projectile which's outer layer flew away to release 30 6kg solid steel ball bearings. By the time the knightmare pilots knew what had happened, their machines had already been destroyed.

(With Kusakabe)

Just as this happened, Kusakabe was informed of it through his screen which showed the enemy knightmares as 'lost'. He was seated on a couch in one of the more decorative rooms, the blinds has long been drawn to avoid making himself a target for snipers and to prevent any shadows being seen from outside the lights were off. "With a single shot." One of his subordinates cheered at the news.

"It works!" another said as there were doubts that the weapons was combat ready.

"The Raiko is a success sir." His aide told him with a smile, even though he could see if for himself, he didn't feel like yelling seeing as he was in such a good mood.

"How to you like that Britannian pigs? Zero's not the only one who can make you bleed." Kusakabe said with a smug grin.

(With the Viceroy on-board the G1)

"What do you mean wipe out?" Andreas Dalton asked the member of the bridge crew who just relayed the news. He, along with the Viceroy Princess Cornelia li Britannia along as her knight of honour Gilbert G.P Guilford. They had been on the scene for the better part of an hour. They all thought their plan was full-proof till this unexpected variable made itself known.

"It appears that they have modified a Glasgow into a Lineal cannon." The man in question reported.

"Then there's no way we can break through." One of the commanders said in anger

"But if we release the political prisoners as they demand-"Another tried to suggest before he was stopped by a very irritated Princess.

"Hold your tongue! We don't show weakness to terrorists!" Cornelia yelled at him for even suggesting such a thing, however Guilford took this moment to lean down to her on her raised throne and said to her.

"But Princess Euphemia is still in the building your highness."

"Yes I know Gilford." Cornelia told him, her voice still tense but softer now was she wasn't in any sort of good mood because of that one detail.

"So far it doesn't look like the terrorist are aware of her presence. She went there in disguise just to observe so her name isn't one the registry. If they learn that Princess Euphemia is there, they will most likely use her as a bargaining ship." Andreas reported as he was the one who saw to her disguise, the girl wanted to go out in just civvies and glasses for goodness sake. The one he picked was still with civvies but along with a blonde wig and green contact lenses. He also picked out a couplt of his older troops to pose as her parents if anyone asked. The fact the terrorist hadn't said anything meant his little ruse was working just fine.

(C.C back at the house)

' _So how are things in Area 11?'_ C.C heard a familiar voice calling out to her through her code. She was seated in the house, finally given permission to leave her little suite and move around. At this moment she was on the patio, looking at the admirable well-kept garden while eating some pizza.

' _They're not too bad, warm bed, seven pizza's a day and a TV but I can tell that's not why you're calling, is it?'_ C.C asked as these days, Marianne liked asking about her kids, odd for a women that stood by while they were banished but C.C didn't really care about details.

' _Guilty as charged, so how are my babies doing?'_ Marianne asked her.

' _Well Nunnally doing well, she joined her school's ballet club about three months ago and is already the Vice-President. Alice started going to school again.'_ C.C told her as she had met the little ball of energy and was tempted to act more motherly with her…but she made that mistake once. Never again.

' _That's wonderful C.C. Nunnally always loved to dance when she was younger but what's this about Alice not going to school? You told me Lulu enrolled her back in April.'_ Marianne asked in an inquisitive tone at the last part.

' _Well she had to deal with some bullies who didn't like having an eleven in their class, she quite literally run home crying after one particularly nasty incident and didn't go back for three months. She only started going again when summer break come to an end.'_ C.C relayed to the 'dead' women.

' _Oh poor child, it must have been rough for her.'_ Marianne replied, sad her grand-daughter in all but name was being bullied, her kids were home-schooled so they never really dealt with such.

' _You should have seen your son's face when he heard about it, it took both Nunnally and Suzaku to keep from hunting down the little snot nosed brats…he settled from nearing giving the principle a heart attack to ensure they were punished and they he would actually do his job.'_ C.C told her, she would admit to herself that she was slightly intimidated by that rage he had in his eyes when his little bundle of joy told 'big bro' what happen, she even saw his eyes shift colour in his anger. Not the red she was used to seeing in both the eyes of both the users and victims of Geass but a more…bloodthirsty and powerful crimson.

One that scared her more than she thought possible.

' _That's my boy! You don't mess with a Lamperouge and get away with it. My uncle did the same for me back when I went through elementary school which had a lot of noble born children.'_ Of course Marianne would see it as her son standing up for his kin but what mother wouldn't be proud of their children sticking up for their own offspring.

' _You never told me you went to a blue blood school.'_ C.C said as this was news to her, she would have thought the former knight of round would have told her something like this sooner.

' _Oh I did for a few years before my family transferred to Area 5 from Area 1. I meet quit a few of Char-Char future wives that way. They were so surprised to see little Miss Farmer's daughter become a Consort to the Emperor.'_ Marianne answered, quite pleased with the memory of seeing all those stuck up bitched shocked as hell at seeing her again, she was surprised they remembered her.

' _Hmm, you learn something new every day I suppose. Moving on, Lelouch has taken up a lot of Literature courses and is so far acing them. Last test he wrote he scored 73%.'_ C.C told her after overhearing him talk to Nunnally about it.

' _That's not him C.C. I remember he would always score 75% and above, even as a child.'_ Marianne said, expecting more from her genius of a son, C.C just snorted at that and shot back.

' _Did I forget to mention he scored 73 on attest he didn't even study for?'_

' _Oh dear, does that boy ever not succeed at whatever he does. Any hobbies I should know about?'_ Marianne giggled as she took in the thought of such.

' _Besides High stakes gambling and performing maintenance on his bike? The three of them have appeared to have picked up the musical arts. Nunnally really loved playing those drums, even when I'm trying to sleep.'_ C.C grumbled to herself as that girl didn't really care for who heard her banging on those drums of hers. Granted they were in the recording studio but the couch there was really soft.

' _[sign] I would say the gambling surprised me if it wasn't for the fact he picked it up from watching the Villa guards playing a game of poker when he was 6. If he knew money was on the line, he would took more than just the poker chips.'_ Marianne said as she recalled how happy the little boy was when he came to show her how much 'colourful tokens' he'd won off the guards, she knew from the amount of them and their colours he had won at least 4,000 pounds but chose not to tell him.

He was satisfied with the tokens.

' _How are things on your end of the fence?'_ C.C asked, it was a while since she heard of the happenings of the Homeland.

' _Boring, the E.U has been up in arms as of late, rattling sabres and that. Schneizel has been trying to keep them calm but Charles wants to have troops in Area 14 get ready. He wants to launch the assault on England as soon as possible.'_ Marianne said.

' _For the thought elevator in Edinburgh I presume?'_ C.C asked even though she knew the answer.

' _The very same. But we'll need the one in eastern Germany as well seeing how that troll can't see to find any others which aren't in heavily defended enemy locations.'_ Marianne grumbled as the ones left were all controlled by the E.U or Federation.

' _Shame, I never really looked into them so I can only tell you about the one in Central Africa since I'm been there.'_ C.C told her, having revealed that she knew there was a thought elevator in the southernmost province of Congo.

' _We know, that why we took northern Africa, the help cut the E.U from their more southern colonies.'_ Marianne said, their conquest of the MEF had more than one purpose.

' _Speaking of V.V. his on the move, last Charles spoke with him, he sent some of his agents to Area 11 to loom for Zero. He doesn't know who he is and we plan to keep it that way. He has already proven he cannot be trusted.'_ Marianne informed her with a serious tone.

' _I'm sure Lelouch would appreciate that if he knew but he has his hands full with the miss.'_ C.C replied, forgetting she didn't tell her anything about her son's love life.

A decision that was coming back to bite her.

' _What! C.C explain!'_

' _It's just that he has this beautiful, kind, older women not only as a wife but the future mother of his children.'_ C.C said as she telepathically sent an image of the women to Marianne to see for herself. Like she expected, she immediately noticed the belly.

' _No way, is she pregnant?'_ Marianne asked, struggling to contain the joy.

" _Is Charles a terrible father?'_

' _OOOOOOOHHHHH! They grow up so fast, I remember when I was the one changing diapers, now my little man will be a father himself. On another note, don't poke fun at my Char-Char.'_ If C.C could see her, she would most likely see Marianne jumping around Anya's room in joy as the news of her first grandchild got her over the moon.

" _If he proves to be a decent father to his remaining kids I'll stop. How many are left anyway?'_ C.C shot back with a question, she stopped keeping up with the assassinations of the royal court a long time ago.

' _Last I bothered to check, another 7 had 'tragically died in freak accidents. So he has around 103 left from the 128 he had when I last saw my son in person. Anyway I have to go, Anya needs her rest after her last deployment down south and I need to tell Char-Char the news about Lulu being his first kid to make his a grandfather, I love the look he gets when his reminded his old.'_ Marianne told her, after having to think about it before ending the conversation on her end.

' _Old enough to be a great-grandfather in some places in the world. We'll talk later I want to watch some TV.'_ C.C said before she cut the connection and went inside to watch some TV, not aware of what was going down all over the news channels.

(Meanwhile with Rai, Lloyd and Cecile)

We find the Special Core on the lakeside of Kawaguchi, they had been present almost as long as the Viceroy but had yet to see any action. Lloyd chose to use the time to fish while Cecile and Rai stood in their respective uniforms behind him.

"Can't we offer any assistance in this?" Rai asked as he looked on to the building in question.

"Already asked but we're an irregular unit and they don't acknowledge our chain of command. Besides…" Lloyd told him as he threw his line back into the water.

"The operation is too risky to trust to an eleven is that right?" Rai asked/said as he figured something like this would pop up.

"I'm sure you're aware that Viceroy Cornelia is very discriminating about Britannians and Numbers." Lloyd replied with his standard easy going smile.

"So even after ten years, the Japanese still haven't been accepted into your structure." Rai shot back, frustrated that the system was designed to be oppressive even though that just made more problems.

"If that is true what's the point in even having an honorary Britannian system?" Cecile asked not really expecting an answer.

"I for one never really knew but right now I don't care about it." A new voice said from behind them, they turned around to see a tall, curvy beautiful women walking towards them, her light green hair clean and straight with blue eyes as clear as the waters of the lake they stood next to but that wasn't what grabbed their attention.

It was the Knight of Round uniform and Purple and gold cloak she wore.

"Dame Enneagram! We aren't expecting you." Cecile stuttered out as she and Rai stood straighter to salute her while just waved like she was an old friend.

"I just got back from my little terrorist hunt down south to hear about it, honestly you take down one cell and another one pops up." Nonette Enneagram replied as she came to stand with them.

"So might I ask what a knight of round is doing here?" Lloyd asked with his signature lack of tack

"Lloyd!" Cecile yelled at him, really how did he survive noble courts when he has the social skills of a suicidal chicken. On the other hand, Enneagram didn't seem to care but rather looked amused by the sociopath of a scientist.

"Well if you must know mister Knightmare-smith. I want this to end as quickly as possible. Unlike Nelly, I don't care for the race of my troops so long as they are competent and loyal." Enneagram said as she looked over the trailer using their ace in the hole.

"Nelly?" Rai asked, he knew of no-one with that name and he had known his lady for over two years.

"Cornelia." Enneagram elaborated for them.

"Oh wait, does that mean…" Cecile asked.

"Yes, that I'm willing to give your folk a shot at this but first we need for information. All we know is charging straight down the main bridge is sure to get the hostages killed while the supply tunnel is being guarded by an unknown make of linear cannon." Enneagram told them with a frown as she thought about how to get past their little obstacle.

"I think I may have something to help with that but I'll need to get it from our other workshop." Lloyd said with the twinkle in his eyes he gets whenever given an opportunity to test his Lancelot in actual combat.

"Great where is it?" Enneagram asked them with a little hope.

"In the Tokyo Settlement, near the Government Bureau. It shouldn't take more than two hours to get here." Cecile told her as they didn't think they would need it when they first showed up.

"…All considering, we don't really have a choice in the matter. It's not like the terrorists are going anywhere." Enneagram as they all looked at the building.

(Hours Later)

Time had flown by as the hostage situation dragged on, what had begun in the early morning had now continued on into the evening, giving this stand off a time of around 8 hours. In that time, Nonette had left to discuss her plan with the Viceroy while Lloyd was able to get his special weapon. Up till now they had been going over that little data they got from the destroyed Sunderland squad that charges the linear cannon for information while Cecile and a few of the mechanics went over the Lancelot to ensure it was combat ready. They had been ready for the past three hours but judging from the inaction, their friendly knight of round wasn't making progress getting the viceroy to see things their way. Things went from bad to worse when they saw that the terrorists took a tied up man to the roof and through him off, not hearing Rai pleas for mercy for the poor soul.

 **Well this is where I'm gonna end this chapter. I know that this isn't even half of the original episode but as you can tell, I added additional scenes and information to I don't end up just repeating what you all already know happened in cannon. One of them major changes is that Nina's nowhere near Euphie so not only does that mean Euphie may not need to step up but it stops her from ever having the chance to gain her…okay her batshit crazy obsession with the pink haired princess, I'm not against her being gay-far from it but she didn't even know her or agree with half of her views like a normal fan would, I mean she was scared of numbers for most of the series and was very outspoken about her none existent views of equality in R2 when she losses her shit and basically calls Suzaku and Kallen traitors to both their friendship and Euphemia because they wouldn't let her kill Zero(She also brings up the racist term 'Eleven' in this incident). I'm trying to change her character for the better by removing that little mental issue of hers. Another change is that Lelouch is in the building so you can imagine he can't came into the scene like he did in cannon. I changed up Euphie's disguise for when she goes out in public as the one she normally used in cannon didn't really have much effort put into it which leaves me surprised that people fell for it.**

 **Nonette Enneagram will start to have a more prominent role in this story as it goes along so don't worry about me just putting her for nothing. She's a knight of round and a close friend to Cornelia so she WILL have a major impact on how things play seeing how in cannon, Lelouch and Suzaku are major reasons for what mostly happens in R1 but throw in a knight of round and well.**

 **Another thing is that V.V is moving into the picture, I can see him not doing so in cannon as he knew who Zero was and where to find him so he didn't see him as much of a threat when he knew he could have had him killed in one night but now he doesn't and is treating this like he would any other person which poses a threat to his 'brotherly bond (Brother complex) and Ragnarok Connection plan. I mean we see during Rolo's little backstory that he has been ordered to assassinate both Britannians and Foreigners who posed a threat such as nobles who wised up, grew and pair and started to disagree or enemy military commanders who were actually good at their jobs and fighting against the empire, journalists that uncovered evidence of the emperor not giving a shit about the empire he was supposed to rule and typical acting like a secret police to a dictatorship. So expect to see some Geass Order soon.**

 **Last thing I want to mention is that not only will Kallen reappear in the next chapter but if the name wasn't enough if a hint, the BK aren't planning to go through the front door like cannon. Nope, they're gonna go all Rainbow Siege on Kusakabe and his men.**


	14. Rainbow Siege: Hotel Takeover: Part II

**I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter, as you can imagine I used it primarily to set up for the actual events to play out with changes made to cannon here and there such as having a knight of round on the scene, Euphie actually having a good disguise as well as setting up for the return of Kallen. I know some of you were upset that her cell hasn't been seen often but they were training along with the other Black Knight troops Lelouch and company had already collected. This chapter will hopefully be able to cover the rest of the episode and then some. Also, Rai is not cannon Suzaku so don't expect them to have similar goals and pasts, they are just both really good at piloting knightmares which I will explained on a later date.**

 **Enjoy and please like and review.**

 **Chapter 13: Rainbow Siege: Hotel Takeover: Part II**

 **22** **nd** **August 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Lake Kawaguchi Hotel and Convention Centre:**

(On-board the G1)

" **Our demands have not been met, therefore we will throw one hostage off the roof every 30 minutes until our demands have been answered. For the sake of the hostages, future negotiations better be in good faith.** " Kusakabe announced over the airwaves after footage of the recently departed hostage was shown over the news networks. Afterwards, Cornelia. Guilford and Andreas were walking down one of the corridors as they discussed the situation.

"This is their warnings? Barbarians." Andreas spoke with contempt at the actions of the criminals.

"For now should negotiate to get the women and children out." Guilford suggested.

"But where does that leave all the foreign ambassadors? If they die this may start a war with the Federation and the E.U." Andreas answered as they were other HVI (High-Value Individuals) in the building beside Princess Euphemia.

"If we give into their conditions then we'll be legitimizing terrorism but if we don't…" Cornelia spoke with anger and frustration as they all thought of solutions.

"Then do we use the Lancelot as Lady Enneagram proposed?" Andreas asked as the Knight of Nine was very adamant they deploy the Lancelot.

"WE can do so after he secured Princess Euphemia." Guilford reminding him.

"Viceroy, it Zero!" One the staff ran up to them to deliver some interesting news.

"What?" Cornelia asked with a frown as all this terrorist activity in one day.

"He somehow accessed out communications channels and is hailing us. He says he wishes to speak with you." The staff member continued, clearly scared of the enraged look the Viceroy had at the moment.

"Just what I need, another damned terrorist." Cornelia muttered.

"Lady Enneagram has already been informed and is waiting your arrival in the private communications room." The staff member finished as he saluted them and took his leave as quick as he could without looking like an ass.

"What does he intend to accomplish with this, we have other things to deal with." Guilford asked aloud.

"The man had a lot of guts if he's calling us, so he must think he has something to gain from all this." Andreas added as like his younger comrade, he couldn't make sense of this.

"Do you think he's working with the JLF?" Guilford asked as that would make some sense.

"Not likely, if he their kind of manpower he could have overwhelmed prince Clovis in more or less a day, long before the Pacific fleet would be able to arrive and provide reinforcements." Andreas said rather bluntly as they had all accepted that is was major lapse in judgement to allow Clovis to govern an area.

"We'll see what the bastard wants when I speak with him, let's get this over with." Cornelia relented as she lead them down the hall to the before mentioned communications rooms."

(Later)

We now find Cornelia, Guilford and Andreas in the comms rooms, they had met Lady Enneagram waiting for them inside. Once the door as closed, Nonette nodded to the sole staffer present to which he saluted before inputting his codes into the system. After a few moments, the screen went from blank to a real time image of Zero. The man in question was standing next to a window with the curtain closed, giving no hints as to where he was while his cloak hid any body language they may analyse at a later date.

" **My greetings Viceroy Cornelia, Lady Enneagram. I trust the two of you are in good health**." Zero said with a short bow which threw them off a bit.

"Cut to the chase Zero, what do you want?" Cornelia demanded as she was no mood for this.

" **So harsh Viceroy, if I were a lesser man, I would cry but that's not why I'm calling you when you are undoubtedly busy. No, I'm calling to offer my aid**." Zero said as he placed his hand over his heart as if he was hurt by her words.

"Your aid? You must be joking." Guilford said with a frown.

" **I assure you, I am quite serious about this. I take an offense to terrorists taking such cowardly actions**." Zero replied before a laugh from the knight of round interrupted anything Cornelia would have said.

"Ha! That's rick coming from the mouth of another terrorist." Nonette stated as she reined in her chuckles.

" **But that is where you are wrong about me Lady Enneagram. I only go after criminals and those who chose to fight under your banner. I have never and will never target civvies like Kusakabe has done. To that point, it would go against my own principles to let this affront continue on so that is why I have a proposal to make**." Zero insisted with an air of professionalism, seemingly proud his track record.

"What could you possible offer that we want?" Andreas asked, wary of an answer.

" **Time…and a distraction**." Zero told them.

"A Distraction?" Andreas questioned.

" **Why yes good sir. My Black Knights along with yours truly will act as decoys to lure Kusakabe's attention away from the main underground service tunnel and securing the hostages so you can charge in and dispose of the criminals. Out little arrival will also give you guys more time before the next poor sap is thrown overboard…so to speak** " Zero told them, surprising them that he was willing to use himself as live bait.

'It's not that bad of an approach but...' Andreas thought to himself as he contemplated the pros and cons of such a move.

"What makes you think we would even think about letting you near them?" Cornelia asked, wanting to know just what made him so damn confident.

" **Because you don't have much other choice, not if you want to see your sister leave the building alive and well**." Zero told them as the air in the comms room grew tense at the implications of what he just said, leaving them to wonder how the hell he knew that.

"We have no-!" Cornelia tried to deny but this time, Zero wasn't having it and waved it off with a loud scoff.

" **Please spare me the lies, your insulting my intelligence. Anyone who actually took the time to read up on how her highness Princess Cornelia conducts her operations would know she would have flatten this place consequences be damned. But, if there was something or…someone she held close to heart inside, that would stay her hand**." Zero told them, revealing he had studied her enough to know that she would have not only flattened the place by now if this was normal day but to also know that only one person's safety would stop her from doing so.

"If you think-!" Nonette said as she glared at his visage on the screen, only for him to cut her off too.

" **Calm yourself my lady, I have no intention to harm a hair on her head or take her as my own hostage/prisoner and if that's not enough, I shall pose this question to you. Will you deny me and let her die with near absolute certainty or…will you ally with me for the night and give her a fighting chance to make it out alive along with everyone else?** " Zero said before he asked them a question they all knew the answer to, even if they didn't like it.

"…How long will you need you bastard?" Cornelia eventually ground out through grinding teeth her sisterly love winning out over her cold general side.

" **First: Leave my dear mother out of this thank you very much. Second: We will need around 12 minutes to get in and secure the hostages, I'll leave Kusakabe alive so you can take him as a show of goodwill to you…at least for** **tonight**." Zero lightly scolded her with a laugh before relaying his time frame and cutting the call just as the good viceroy looked like she about to blow a few blood vessels in rage.

(With Lelouch)

'She doesn't need to know that they are already on their way here.' Lelouch thought to himself as he ended the call and checked his watch. 'They should be reaching here in about 2 minutes. Good thing I put Nina to sleep. The software in the camera makes it look like anyone in the shoot is Zero and two Zero's would be rather odd.' Lelouch thought to himself as he put away the camera he had been able to take with him from his luggage and went to the chair where he had placed a sleeping Nina a few minutes prior.

(With the infiltration team)

Kallen was inside a dark space, along with her were 4 other people. Each members of the Black Knights.

Their mission was a simple but important one. They were to rescue hostages from the JLF and assist the colonial forces in doing so.

Kallen had only been an active pilot for about a month and already she had seen a lot of action, granted it was mostly acting as the heavy guns in their raids but she felt good none the less about helping her people gain their dignity back, protecting those who couldn't protect themselves and if they were too late…avenge them. Most of her former cell had been stationed with other cells in Japan with only Tamaki being stationed with her as a mechanic. Having gone on five missions in the last month had really boosted her faith in Zero. However when she had heard that there was a hostage situation at the Lake Kawaguchi Hotel and Convention Centre, she didn't know what to think. Her old self wouldn't have cared about it but after training and working alongside Britannians among other groups-she knew that kind of thinking was part of the problem and needed to change. None the less, she didn't think that the Bk would involve itself in till they got a call from command ordering them to so and assist. Kallen originally wasn't supposed to be on the mission seeing as a pilot she didn't receive the kind of training that operation would need.

That all changed when she saw just _who_ the hostages were on the news. After that she begged her CO to allow her to join the mission, she couldn't sit back while her friends were in danger, she just couldn't. it took a lot of begging, pleading and even her fellow soldiers she had made friends with to convince the old goat but the point was she had a chance to help save the lives of people she called her friends.

Which brings us to the present time. She was seated in one of three disguise disposable vans which on the outside looked like a news fan, these vans were on their way to the location. She like everyone else was dressed for the occasion. They were all wearing blue camo full body wet suits with even covered their heads, leaving her crimson hair tucked away and out of sight. Along with this they had ballistic vests and helmets of the same colouring as well as high quality swimming googles. Of the thirty people on this mission, fifteen were armed with: 1 combat knives; 2 smoke grenades; 2 flash grenades; a silenced Walther P99 pistols with two spare clips; silenced Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns with three spare clips. Six were armed with everything the others had except they had silenced Franchi SPAS-12 shotguns with 12 spare shots while another three were armed with silenced AS50 sniper rifles. The last six people only had their pistols with three spare clips instead of two and eight 2kg blocks of plastic explosives.

Along with them in the vans were small but powerful midget submarines. Too small for even one of them to ride but big enough for them to hold on to as it powers through the water. The device was also fitted with oxygen tanks, eliminating the needs for them to carry their own and therefore help to keep them light and nimble.

(With Gibson-five minutes before Lelouch's call to Cornelia)

"Hey, Gibson were we expecting another two vans?" One the technicians asked their boss who was still inside the news van.

"No we weren't, why?" Gibson asked as he sorted through footage.

"Because two just showed up." The women told him from outside as she watched another couple of vans pull up near them.

"Hmm, there not ours. Keep it out, you know how Ried gets about other news agencies 'poaching' his stories." Gibson told her as he paid it no mind.

"Sure thing Gib." Alright buddy what are HOLY CRAP!" Gibson heard from outside, curious as to what made his tech swear like that he stopped what he was doing to go and see.

"What the hell are you…shit" Gibson stopped and swore himself as when he came out of the van, he was greeted by 10 unknown people all pointing pistols at him and his three person crew. One of the stepped forward and addressed them.

"Alright you two, we don't want trouble but we're gonna need you two to stay cool." The apparent leader of the group told him with a thick accent, it sounded Korean, or maybe Chinese, he couldn't tell but he didn't really think that was important at the moment.

"Who are you people, what do you want?" He asked them as they was 'led' to the side, away from their van and told to hand over their phones which they all did seeing as they weren't in the mood to be shot.

"Who we are? Hmmm, we're the Black knights, what we're doing is none of your business so shut it. Sparrow 2 and 4, unload those subs on the double, we're on a time limit." The leader told them before he turned and ordered. They quickly nodded and went to work. Gibson was surprised to see them pull some kind of mini submarine out of the back of their vans and set them into the water. Two of them started setting up places to lay down and fire as they prepped their frickin sniper rifles. It took them around five minutes to do so and when they were down, six of them were standing knee deep in the water along with their little subs. Gibson didn't see more because they were put back into their van before one of the smacked them all over the head with the butt of his SMG, knocking them out cold.

The last thought Gibson has was much pissed Ried was going to be.

(With Kallen, two minutes before Lelouch's call to Cornelia)

"Is it done?" their platoon leader asked as Kallen came to join them in the water.

"It is, they should be out for another five minutes, enough time for the vans to drive off unseen." Kallen confirmed as she took her line and connected it to the sub's hull via a latch.

"Good. Alright people, put on you oxygen masks, we're gonna be under water for around 700m so around 2 minutes. The snipers here will watch our backs and take out anyone who spots us." The Platoon leader told them as he put on his own goggles.

"Yes sir." The platoons nodded at this and quickly put on their goggles before they reached for the oxygen masks laying on the subs. Once they all were tightly on, they walked the subs deeper into the water until they were chest level deep. Once they reached this depth, the subs were activated and started powering through the water, keeping them below the surface at around 2m. If it was daytime, they could be seen from the hotel but with the cover of darkness they were invisible. Once they made it to one of the many docks for boats and yachts they all climbed onto them one at a time, keeping watch for any stranglers. Once the last people moved their subs under the docks to avoid being seen. They all removed their goggles and quickly moved to a large shadow to keep out of sight.

" **Alright ladies, here's the plan: According to our sources, the hostages are being kept in three different room. One if the main lobby on the first floor, another is the conference hall on the 2** **nd** **level and the last is a small dining hall on the 3** **rd** **. Our job is to meet up eliminate the terrorist guarding each of these rooms before sending the all clear signal to the brits so they can charged on this on horseback or something**." The platoon leader said as he relayed the plan to everyone before he pointed to the three who had the explosives " **Once that is done and the hostages are secured, the demolition teams will set off their charges, blowing the place to hell."** He finished as he stood back up.

" **Yes sir**." They all said, Kallen keeping herself cool for their rescue mission.

" **Good, now let's move it. Sparrows team red, on me. We got the ones dining hall**." The platoon leader said as they all went their separate ways to begin the mission. Kallen's team went up the stairs and to one of the service entrances meant for food deliveries. Once they reached it, they saw two JHF men guarding the door but their backs were turn to them, giving them a chance to take them out.

"Alright, these puppets don't have a clue that we're here. Take them out on my mark. 3…2…1." The platoon leader told them as he and Sparrow 9 took aim and fired. The commander shooting his targets through the back of the head while the second person put three shots in the man's neck and head. "Good shooting, someone paid attention in basic." The commander joked as they made their way past the bodies and into the building.

"Well the drill instructor was pretty loud." Sparrow 9 commented as they made their way through the quiet hallways, keeping out of sight of the guards as much as possible.

"No kidding, it's like his voice box has a built-in megaphone." Kallen (Sparrow 5) added as she did remember basic training with both a smile and a grimace. They got the 2nd floor without problem with Sparrow 5 now taking point. They soon come to an intersection where there were another two guards, they were facing them but because of the shadows and lack of light they hadn't spotted them yet.

"I got these two." Sparrow 5 said as she took aim at them.

"Copy that Sparrow 5." Two shots to the neck of the first and another one through the head of his friend. Both dropped without making a peep. Once that was done, the bodies were quickly hidden in a nearby supply closet to prevent someone finding them.

"Alright, up this stairwell." Sparrow 4 (platoon leader) said as they reached another set of stairs, this one on the side and clearly meant for employees.

"Why not the elevator?" Sparrow 3 as they made their up the stairs, keeping watch for anything.

"You're joking right? That thing has literally no cover if we're spotted." Sparrow 4 told him as she didn't want to die tonight.

"Yeah but I'm lazy plus I like elevator music." Sparrow 3 joked as they reached the 3rd floor as planned. They continued for another minute or so before they reached one of their secondary targets.

"I see a vent up ahead." Sparrow 7 said as they saw the air vent ahead of them.

"Copy that Sparrow 7, plant the charge." Sparrow 4 said as they all stood watch to cover him while he did so.

"Roger" Sparrow 7 nodded as he approached the air vent and quickly removed the cover before planting the charge and putting the cover back in place. "Charge Planted." He said as he finished and made his back to them.

"Alright, one down, seven more to go." Sparrow 4 said as he reached for his radio to tell the rest. " **This is Sparrow 4, charge one has been planted, over**." Sparrow 4 said over their radios.

" **Roger that Sparrow 4, charge planted, Sparrow Team Blue have planted charge 3 and 4. Sparrow 12 is planting charge 5 as we speak, over. Charge 5 planted, over**." Sparrow Team Blue Leader (Sparrow 13) relayed over the radio in response.

" **Roger that, charges 3, 4 and 5 planted, over**. Sparrow 4 confirmed as he mentally went over all the spots they needed to be primed before they left.

" **Squad, this is Sparrow team black. Charges 6 and 7 have been planted. Lobby hostage info was a bust, continuing with secondary objective now, over."** Sparrow Tem Black Leader (Sparrow 26) conveyed over the radio as her team continued with their mission.

" **Copy that Sparrow 26, proceed with your secondary objective as planned, Sparrow 4 out**." Sparrow 4 said as they made their way to their primary mission objective. They reached the shut doors to the dining hall of saw four guards around it. They were quickly taken out by Sparrow 4 and 9 without a sound. They reached the door and after a quick inspection found it to be locked from the inside, meaning there guards posted inside as well as outside the place. With no other way, they opted to make their own entrance.

"Alright, this is the door, Sparrow 2, prep the breaching charges." Sparrow 4 ordered as they all got into position. Sparrow 3, 4, 5 and 8 standing ready to breach while the rest stood watch in case more guards showed up.

"Copy." Sparrow 2 said as she brought out the flat, rectangular breaching charge and planted it right on the middle of the door. Once that was done, she stepped back with the detonator in her hands, awaiting command.

"Alright, we breach in 3…2…1. Breach!" Sparrow 4 counted down before the charges blew the wooden door to smithereens, just as the charges did their job, they all rushed in. In those few short moments, everything seemed to slow down as they entered the hall in a rush. Kallen used her training and her own survival instincts to slow and down and calmly pick her targets. With a burst of four rounds, she took down on of the eight guards while another burst of three took down another. She was able to put a bullet between the eyes of another as he tried to rise one of the hostages as a human shield. By the time things seemed to speed up to normal again, she was able to see that all but one of the terrorists were down. It look like Sparrow 3 was able to blast one of the targets in the leg with his shotgun, leaving a very bloody mess. Other than that, the hostages seemed to be fine.

"Is everyone alright?" Sparrow 4 asked as he and everyone else lowered their weapons as to not intimidate them more than they already were.

"We, we're fine. Thank you." One of the hostages replied as he and everyone slowly got to their feet and walked towards them, avoiding the bodies on the floor.

"Who are you?" Milly asked a she was helped to her feet by Kallen, not that she knew that.

"Your ticket out of here to stay close and be quiet, we don't need more attention they necessary." Sparrow 4 told them as he turned his attention to Sparrow 8 who was in the middle of securing their tertiary mission objective: capturing one of the rebels so they can interrogate them, it just so happened the one who took buck shot to the knee was their unfortunate target. They were all moving out of the room when Sparrow 4 noticed that one of the hostages was having trouble moving.

"What seems to be the problem with her?" He asked as he approached the ill looking Reyla as she was being up to her feet by Shirley.

"Pregnancy pains." Reyla grounded out as she struggled to her feet after kneeling for so long, luckily Sparrow 4 assisted her and was thanked for it before he turned to face two of the older hostages.

Alright, you two." Sparrow 4 said as he pointed to Chairman James and other gentleman. "Help her walk, we ain't leaving anybody behind and especially an expecting mother to move it." Sparrow 4 ordered them as they both quickly went to assist Reyla, either out of the some noble code or because of the men with guns telling them do was up for debate.

" **Update, this is Sparrow Team Red, we have secured the dining hall hostages and are making out way to the exit point. Status? Over**." Sparrow 4 asked over their radios.

" **Sparrow Team Red, this is Sparrow Team Blue. All charges have been planted and we have secured the conference hostages, no complications, over**." Sparrow 13 said as he help lead the hostages away from danger and to their exit point.

" **Sparrow Team Red, this is Sparrow Team Black, we have interrogated one of the terrorist and have some grime news. The missing hostages are near that linear cannon, if that things blows-they go with it. Over**." Sparrow 26 added as she punched the captured terrorist over the head, getting a pained groan from him.

" **Dammit, Copy that Sparrow Team Black, we'll let the Brits know before they blow it to hell. Did you get any information about Princess Euphemia, she isn't with this group? Over**." Sparrow 4 asked as he told just how important it was to get her to safety.

" **That's a negative here Sparrow Team Red, we have the reps from the federation and some civvies, no one else. Over**." Sparrow 13 replied.

" **She wouldn't be with the third group Sparrow Team Red, according to this idiot the ones by the cannon are the reps from the E.U and Australia along with the hotel workers. Over.** " Sparrow 26 added to the bad news they had. Sparrow 4 was in the middle of thinking of what to do till Milly spoke up.

"She was with us but they took her." Milly revealed as they walked down the hallway.

"Pardon?" Sparrow 4 asked, that wasn't in the info.

"She was here about couple minutes ago but she stood up for me when the guards started losing their patience with me." Reyla told them as she and Milly noticed the emblems on their uniforms and knew they were Black Knights, meaning they could be trusted for the most part.

"So she should on her way to Kusakabe as we speak." Sparrow 5 muttered, this wasn't a good thing for them seeing how the man already proved ready and able to throw people off the rook. God knows what he would do to the princess when he gets his hands on her.

" **Alert, I repeat Alert. This is Sparrow Team Red with urgent news. Princess Euphemia has been compromised, I repeat she has been compromised. Her cover has been blown. Sparrow team Black, you are to switch mission priorities and intercept her before she reaches Kusakabe. Over**." Sparrow said over the comms, redirecting their forces to cover all their bases in the best way he knew how.

" **Copy that, Sparrow Team Black will switch and pursue new target. Over and out. Good Luck**." Sparrow 26 said over the comms before she signed off, presumable to start her new mission orders.

" **Sparrow Red copies you, Sparrow team Blue is to meet with Sparrow Red and hand over their hostages to us and then we get the 3** **rd** **group. Over**." Sparrow 4 ordered over the comms as they went back down the stairs, taking out a group of three terrorists in their way.

" **Copy that Sparrow Red, no rest for the weary I suppose. We'll meet you by the main stairwell on the 2** **nd** **floor. Over and out**."

(With Sparrow Team Black)

"You heard that sir?" Sparrow 26 asked as she removed her helmet and the head part of her swim suit to reveal she was actually Officer Cadet Ayano Kosaka, formally of the E.U.

"Of course I did. Looks like we need to move." Lelouch said as he fastened his cape into place. Sparrow team Black had been given the task of finding him and providing his gear-including his duel lightsabers. They were all specially chosen because they already knew of his identify making it easier to find him.

"Sir, what about the civilian you had with you?" Ayano asked as she pointed to the sleeping Nina, he found it easier to knock her out with a little trick he had picked up rather than trying to explain to her what he was doing.

"Hmm, have Sparrow 23 and 24 get her down to Sparrow Team Red, tell them I'm with the other group at the moment." Lelouch said as he went over to the window to observe the massive G1 off in the distance.

"Roger, men you heard him. Move It!" Ayano ordered as two of her squad quickly saluted her.

"Yes mam." And with that, they grabbed Nina as gently as they could and were off.

"Lead the way, general." Ayano said as she put her helmet back on. Lelouch nodded to that before he turned his attention to the ceiling above them.

"If that's the case, why don't we make ourselves a little short-cut?" Lelouch asked the group as a whole as he kept on staring at the ceiling, leaving them in the dust.

"What do you have in mind?" Sparrow 22 asked him.

"This." Lelouch answered as he raised his left hand to the ceiling and started to use the force to pull it down. It took about a few moments but soon the ceiling caved in and open up a path to the next floor.

"I'll never get tired of that." Ayano said with a smile and chuckle.

"I aim to impress besides, Kusakabe is on the eighth floor se we need to catch up with her highness. Let's go." Lelouch said as he ran up the impromptu ramp to the next floor.

"Sir!" They all said in unison as they ran to follow their leader up towards their target.

(With Cornelia)

"Mam, we just received an update of the situation from Zero's men." One of the staff members informed them as a message just came in. He along with the rest of the staff were on-board the G1 alongside with the Viceroy along with the knight and nine, Guilford and Andreas. They had been waiting for something like this.

"Well what are you waiting for? What does it say?" Andreas ordered as he wasn't about to wait the suspense to build, they needed information now!

"Mam, they say that there were no hostages in the lobby as we thought and they are instead in the service tunnel near the enemy linear cannon. They are requesting we don't send troops down there as if the cannons goes, the explosion may kill the hostages wholesale." The staffer informed them of the grave news, something that Enneagram found to be extremely annoying.

"Bastards, using the hostages as shield for their little weapon." She thought aloud as she banged her fist on the table.

"Mam, the message also reads that the hostages in the tunnel are a mix of the hotel workers and the representatives from the E.U and Australia. They have already secured the Britannian and Federation hostages and are moving them from the line of fire. We are clear to charge the main gate." The staffer continued, this time given them some good news about the situation.

"What about Sub-Viceroy Euphemia?" Cornelia asked, struggling to keep a professional tone like she told her sister to do when they arrived in this area.

"She wasn't with the hostages. According to the message, she blew her cover to protect a pregnant lady from harassment and is been taken to Kusakabe. Zero is reportedly on route to intercept her." The staffer replied, breaking the joy his last statement brought as the gravity of the situation sunk in, none more so than for Cornelia.

"Dammit Euphie." Cornelia swore as she hoped her sister would keep her head down long enough for them to mount a rescue attempt.

"In the meantime, sends new orders to the special core, they are to have the Lancelot along with 4 other Sunderlands charge straight down the main bridge. They are to secure the route for infantry. Is that clear?" Enneagram ordered as she turned to another staffer who quickly nodded her head.

"Yes, My Lord!" She said as she went about transmitting the news orders to the special core as requested.

"Do we dare hold out hope?" Cornelia asked aloud, finding it odd and painful to her pride to have to rely on a man she wants to kill.

"It may be the only thing we can do at this moment." Andreas replied, sounding to be as much against as she was but also knowing Zero was the lesser evil…at least for tonight.

(With the Special Core)

"Thank you for those wonderful orders, Lady Enneagram." Lloyd practically beamed with joy as he listened to their new orders before he hung up the phone and turned to his colleagues as they prep the Lancelot with Rai seated in the open cockpit. "We got the green light people. You've orders to charge right down that bridge and take out ant opposition that meets you. You'll be accompanied by 4 other knightmares." He explained with a smile.

"What about the linear cannon?" Cecile asked him as they thought they were to charge that.

"Apparently, Zero's people are on the scene as we speak and they were able to find out that there are hostages in close proximity to the cannon, we send Lancelot down there to destroy is and they die along with it." Lloyd explained with his regular flippant attitude, not at all caring that Zero was present was he knew he would have to wait for another opportunity to get his revenge in him for wrecking his precious Lancelot.

"But if he charges down the main-!" Cecile tried to reject it but was stopped by Rai who had a determined expression.

"Miss Cecile. Please allow me to do this. With the Lancelot I can help them." Rai said with an air of confidence and purpose as he sat back down to ready the system. After they talked it out, Cecile was out-voted and the Lancelot was moved to the bridge area where the other units had been placed. Rai as in the cockpit making sure everything was how it should be when Cecile spoke over his comms.

" **Private First Class Kanazawa, here are your mission parameters. According to the Black Knights, the hostages are being escorted down the lobby area. Advanced Prototype Weapon Z-01 Lancelot will lead a small Fireteam of Sunderlands down the main bridge and eliminate any and all obstacles for the infantry units primed to come in and escort the hostages to safety. You will be equipped with the V.A.R.I.S for Operation, set the impact rail to anti-material level 2.** " Cecile relayed as Rai got the Lancelot into position, seconds from launch."

(With Euphemia)

"I brought the hostage that I radioed over earlier for the Lieutenant Colonel to see. She claims that she's princess Euphemia." The terrorist said as he saluted the five guards standing outside the room Kusakabe had commandeered for himself. He along with another two had 'escorted' Euphemia here and were still very sceptical about her claims seeing how she hadn't removed her wing and contacts but none the less, they hadn't heard of any Britannian outside the nobility and royal family having such a commanding aura to them. They were about to be led in when they felt the building shake and the ground they stood on wobble.

"What was that?" One of the troops asked as they felt the ground shake again but this time the floor a little ways away from them collapse down, before they could make heads or tails of it-they saw Zero jumped through the hole at them like a bat out of Hell.

"What th-AGH!" One of the troopers tried to bring his gun to bare but along with the person next to him were simultaneously kicked in the heads by Zero who performed a brutal double split kick to them before landing on of his hands and twisting himself to kick another in the chest with both feet. Then, using them poor sap as a spring board, he jumped towards Euphemia and tackled her to the ground just as a hailstorm of bullets met the remaining troops, shredding them. All this went down within two seconds. Leaving a shell shocked Euphie on the floor while Zero's own troops made their way through the hole in the floor and executed the ones Zero had taken out.

"It's clear." Sparrow 26 said as she came to stand next to the infamous wanted man. For the most part Zero didn't too much after getting up from the floor aside from assisting the princess to her feet again.

"Zero…" Euphemia breathed out as she faced the man how tried to kill her elder brother for the first time, not knowing what to do.

"Sub-viceroy. I would love to chat but I have business with the man behind this door." Zero said with a small and surprising bow as he turned to his men. They all nodded their heads at the unspoken order and got ready. He open the door and entered the room. For the most part, it didn't seem to dawn on Kusakabe had entered as he wasn't facing the door. His two guards did noticed and immediately trained their guns on both Zero and the princess who followed him in.

"Zero!" One of the guards yelled cocked his pistols and aimed it right at them, Euphie jumped a little but once more Zero was as cool as a cucumber.

"Hmm! Zero? What are you doing here?" Kusakabe demanded as he turn around to see the unwelcome guest.

"I suppose you can say that I came to assist-" Zero started but Kusakabe interrupted him mid-sentence.

"Well your help-" Kusakabe started before Zero got him back by continuing to speak.

"-the viceroy deal with her little hotel problem." Zero finished, surprising everyone from what Euphie could tell as they weren't expecting that at all.

"What! You mean to say you're actually siding them. Our enemies." Kusakabe barked, much louder than before which Euphie chalked up to his ever shortening temper.

"Well of course I would, you the bad guy here. I have a very strict policy about targeting civvies you know." Zero lectured in a tone she remembered her more…strict tutors using on her when they wanted her to feel stupid.

"Why you-" One of the guards grounded out in fury, only for the man in question to continue one like this was a normal day for him.

"But I did come to talk so let's talk shall we?" Zero said as he led me towards the opposite crouch then the one Kusakabe was standing in front of, seating himself down like he owned the place, leaving the confused and slightly scared princess to sit next to him. After all, if he wanted to kill her, he could have done it at the door.

"Hmph, well you have balls I'll give you that. Coming in her with no weapons what so ever and with an apparent princess no less. I don't know if you're the bravest man I've ever met or the dumbest." Kusakabe said as he calmed down and took his own seat, his guards flanking his rear. Euphie notices his own hands never leaving the hilt of his katana. She already had read how those types of bladed could split a grown man in two in the right hands.

"I did came here to speak. Besides, who said I wasn't armed?" She heard Zero taunted from his seat next to her. What everyone else didn't notice was curved cylinder-like…blade handle hanging from his belt…well everyone except Euphie who was wondering how that was Zero's weapon when he could have had a pistol.

"Ha! Alright, I'll humour you before you die. What do you want to know?" Kusakabe asked with a smug smile, something she suspected Zero would have returned if they could see his face going by the tone of his voice when he asked his question.

"Why did you carry out this little stunt, knowing you'll have no way out? Is this truly a suicide attack as I thought?" Zero asked, looking like he wasn't all that concerned for the lives of the hostages, something that rubbed the 3rd princess the wrong way.

"What?" Euphie asked as she never could have imagined that was their end game. On the other, Kusakabe just grunted in admission.

"Hmmm, your smarter than you look, your right about this being a do-or die attack Zero." He told them but before Zero could offer a retort, Euphie was one her feet, angry-no furious that would do such a thing.

"Why? Why would you sacrifice not only your lives but the lives of hostages!?" Euphemia demanded of them, wanting to the twisted reasoning behind such an idea. Sadly her opinions weren't that well received.

"Know your place you-!"one of the guards yelled as he went about aiming his gun at her before he felt absolute dread wash over him when he saw a…a…beast stand in Zero's shadow, glaring at him with such anger and hatred through its blood stained Oni mask that he almost crap his pants as he fell on his ass. The guns falling to the ground forgotten as he silently started to beg and pray for mercy from Kami, to be saved from this atrocity. Of course, his reaction to a threat only he could see didn't go unnoticed by everyone as his fellow guard tried to snapped him out of it while Kusakabe and Euphemia were left stunned by it. For Euphie she didn't know what had occurred but she had a thought that it had something to do with the man next to her.

"The lady asked a question, you best answer if you don't want to see me angrier then I'm already am." Zero said, his voice was soft and low in tone but carried a dangerous undertone and silent warning all the same.

"Explain what you mean by that Zero." A visibly weary Kusakabe asked of him, both of them watching the masked man for any signs he would do something.

"It's exactly as I said it is, I'm pissed off right now but unlike most forms of aggression, mine's both a fever and a cold kind. It doesn't make me ill-rational but gives me focused…so I can plot of all the ways I'll _slowly_ and _painfully_ END whatever made me angry. Kind of like you." Zero answered, the rage and slight insanity coming off him making Euphie want to keep her distance from him.

"Damn you Zero! Someone like you would never understand. This attack is to show the country and the world that the Japanese aren't dead just yet. To make the Britannians remember we can still fight." Kusakabe said, revealing their plans to them both, with left Euphie somewhat silent as Zero just scoff.

"Oh I'm sure they'll be running for the hills from someone who can only attack civvies. _That_ will really be helpful for the Japanese people." Zero mocked as with a little chuckle that sent visible chills down the terrorist spines.

"What?" Euphemia asked of him as now wasn't the time to provoke them more than he already had.

"As we speak, my Black Knight are moving all the hostages towards the authorities for their own safety. You human shield are gone Kusakabe," Zero teased him as they all heard but rather felt a tremor coming from the lower levels as Zero finished speaking. "And it looks like the Viceroy is already begun her side of the attack, right on time might I add." Zero added as he checked his watch like to see if they really were on time, Euphie was left surprised that her sister was willing to work with him but she remembered she was present meaning she must have been desperate.

"Who stinkin, we still got hostages with the Raiko." She could now see that Kusakabe was grasping at straws, trying to stay in control but it seemed it wasn't in the cards as Zero now laughed at him.

"That's what's it called, learn something new every day I suppose. Anyway, Just before I took out your guards outside, I had gotten word that the Raiko has been taken out. You didn't bother placing any guards for such a big thing so it was easy for my men to get the crew to surrender. Face it Kusakabe, you lost." Zero taunted with a laugh as the terrorist's plans were destroyed in no less than 20 minutes by one man (Not that Euphie knew how ling Zero had been present). At this point she could see that Kusakabe was about to lose whatever cool he had and cool he lost.

"If that's true, THEN IM TAKING YOU AND THE DAMNED PRINCESS WITH ME!" He yelled as he jumped over the table with his sword drawn, his only remaining guard taking aim at her with killer intent. She couldn't see how they could get out of this alive and closed her eyes and hoped it was quick. She heard a heavy thud, a relatively low pinch sound, a pained groaned and a sizzle of meat burning? What is that smell? When she opened her eyes, Euphie seriously thought that perhaps she was died and this was illusion.

Kusakabe, who was just in front of her was now on the other side if the room, going by the smashed mirror on the wall he was laying/leaning he was harshly thrown into the wall which shouldn't be possible as the wall is well over 4m from his seat.

Another thing that shouldn't be possible was the fact that the terrorist who was about to shoot her was now right in Zero's face, his own contorted by pain and agony as a glowing purple blade pierced right through him… no that's that right. Now that her eyes were open she could see that it had quite painfully burned its way through his chest, making her wonder just how hot the blade was? And if it was as hot as the MVS blades she had heard Lloyd had completed. The guard on the floor was not somehow floating (Just who was Zero doing this?!) while screaming for reprieve like a terrified child. She could make out that something was holding him but she could not see what. Unknown to her was that Zero had used a simple force push technique to knock Kusakabe into the wall while Force to hold them petrified guard in the air. Just as Kusakabe was able to clear the cobwebs from his sight, Zero decided to allow all of them to see just what the guard was seeing(Bar the guy who got stabbed as he wasn't facing the right way).

Euphemia would have nightmares for many days afterwards.

Standing well over 2m tall was a nightmarish version of some kind of ogre. It was so tall in fact that it was crouching slightly to fit into the room. It had pale grey skin which bulged with muscles. It wore nothing more than a simple pair of pants which left its clawed feet visible. It had large hands with huge red claws, one of which was holding up the poor man who still was begging for mercy. One final part of it that scared the life out of her was the white blood stained Oni mask with the evil corrupted yellow eyes that glowed in the lack of light in the room.

"Be thankful Kusakabe that I already promised the viceroy to capture you alive to hand over to her otherwise this would have been your fate." Zero warned ominously as he pulled his blade out of the first man and turned it off while snapping his fingers and in turn the monster started to squeeze the man to death, his screams echoing around the entire floor before he as smashed the into the ground repeatedly, each time harder than the last. Euphie would have said something but the manner of which he was being beaten was too terrifying for her to speak. After the 4th one, blood was spilled, after the 8th one, bone could clearly be heard breaking. After the 13th time. The man was silent, it didn't take a doctor to tell he was dead. What they didn't know was that Zero merely used the force to both crush and smash the man while making it look as if the Oni he created was doing it. Once he was done, he dispelled his Force Daunt ability.

"Listen here and you listen good." Zero said as he made his way past the now died guards, slowly but deliberately making his way to the scared stiff Kusakabe. "You have beaten, battered, broken. Your men are either died, dying or captured. Your human shields are lost to you and now you stand alone with but two options. Either surrender peacefully, accept that you are now a prisoner of the crown of Britannia or…" Zero paused as he came to a stop in front of Kusakabe, seemingly towering over the fallen man as his cursed Oni reappeared behind the masked man, its eyes gazing down, seemingly through the man very soul. "I have my demon devour a limb or two then hand you over the viceroy. I don't she cares either way, do you?" Zero asked as the Oni moved to grabbed the fallen man who could nothing shake and sweat as his mind shut down after having to look into the eyes of his secret childhood fears. Luckily for him, a certain princess would never allow such an actions and spoke up with more authority and power then both men thought her capable.

"Zero! I won't let you have your, your beast devour this man! He has been defeated!" Euphemia ordered with a look of something fierce. Zero paused his demon and turned to face her while the Oni kept its eyes on Kusakabe, unknowingly making the man relive every knightmare Oni's give him as a boy.

"Oh, showing mercy to your enemies Sub-viceroy? Don't you know he was going to use you for all your worth and kill you?" Zero asked, his tone giving way to amusement as her look, however she did not let him frighten her, not when someone's life was on the line.

"Regardless, what he wanted to do does not warrant such treatment! We are capable of taking into custody as is." Euphemia responded, her tone and stance iron.

"We?" Zero asked with amusement peppering his voice through the mask.

"You said yourself that you are working with the viceroy for this mission of yours, so it's safe to assume that we are allies for now." Euphemia shot back, not letting the fear get to her.

"My, my. That is correct Sub-viceroy…Very well we shall do it your way." Zero relented as his Oni once more disappeared only for him to turn to the door. Troops! Came take the target into custody." As Zero gave his orders, 4 of his people rushed into the room and quickly secured Kusakabe with handcuffs and hauled him to his feet to drag him off. Euphemia was surprised at the speed that they came in.

'Have they been outside this whole time?' Euphemia thought to herself as Zero walked up to her again, from what little she could see of his stance, he didn't seem like planning to do something.

"Come now, we have to get you to your sister. I imagine she is quite displeased by today's events." Zero said as he offered her a hand like it was a ball and they were about to dance. For the most part she didn't know how to respond but reasoned she should play along for the moment.

"Very well, lead the way." Euphemia said as she took his hand and allowed him to walk her out of the room, his guards covering their rears and their fronts as they walked with Kusakabe being escorted along in front of them.

"By the way Sub-viceroy, I wasn't going to have my demon eat him." Zero said out of nowhere, catching her off guard at his seemingly random comment.

"Then why?" Was all she could got out of her surprised lips.

"I wished to see your character, you'll be amazed at how many of your siblings would have sat by and left him to his fate…you haven't change." Was all Zero replied with, leaving her with a riddle to solve.

(Later with Cornelia.)

"Your Highness, we just got word from out forward units. All the hostages are being escorted through the lobby now." Guilford reported to the Viceroy.

"And Euphie?" Cornelia asked

"She is with them, Zero just dropped her off before he and his men disappeared back into the building. They're not answering our calls." One of the staffer answered as they had been trying to hail the masked man in question for a while now but he and the Black Knights weren't responding.

"We'll wait to see how he reacts to this. In the meantime, prep our teams to take in the civvies." Nonette said as she ordered the staff.

"Yes, My Lord." Was the reply she got. They waited for around 20 minutes as the APCs picked up civvies from the hotel's entrance and got them safely over the bridge. It wasn't till the last one arrived that Cornelia spotted a head of pick hair (Euphie had gotten rid of the disguise)

"Sister!" Euphemia cheered as she ran up to her sister and jumped into her arms for a hug.

"Euphie!" Cornelia whispered as she held her beloved sister close, filled with happiness that she could hold her again.

"I'm so happy to see you. Sorry for all the trouble." Euphemia apologised as they broke off from their hug. Cornelia with an actually tear in her eye didn't accept it.

"Nonsense sister, you had no control over the actions of the elevens. Are you alright? Did they hurt you?" Cornelia asked her, checking her over as her sisterly side really came out in force.

"No sister, I am unharmed. Zero was sure to keep me and the rest of them safe." Euphemia assured her sister. At the mention of his name, Cornelia remembered the part of the operation she had talked about with her staff as well as Nonette before Euphemia could arrive.

"Speaking of him, Guilford! Make ready to storm the hotel. We're gonna capture him tonight and be done with it." Cornelia ordered as she turned to face her knight of honour, Cornelia mentioning the man also got Euphie to remember something herself about a note she had.

"Wait sister, I have something from Zero." Euphemia said as she took a small note from her sleeve and went to hand it to her sister who looked sceptical about it.

"From Zero?" Cornelia asked to confirm, she was wondering he would need a letter when he was refusing to answer their calls.

"Yes, he asked if I could pass this on to you at the earliest time." Euphie said as she recalled how just before he left her with the other hostages, Zero slip her the note before disappearing with the rest of his men.

"Well let me see what he had to say." Cornelia said as the two sister opened up the small note to read what Zero had written for them, they were surprised by the penmanship level as well as the message itself

' _IF your reading this letter, then it means that Sub-Viceroy Euphemia made it back to you safe and sound which is something that brings joy to my heart. It also means that you plan on charging into the building in the hope of capturing me as well…._

… _.if you think I'm dumb enough to leave a trail for you to follow in the first place then you are in for a rather explosive awakening._ '

"What does he mean by explo-?" Cornelia started to ask till she was violently interrupted.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"What the hell was that?!" Andreas demanded.

"The Hotel, it's falling to the ground." One of the staffer pointed out as they saw the hotel be rocked by numerous explosions.

"…So at least we now know what he meant about explosives." Nonette commented aloud as they all watched as the building fell down to earth, completely destroying any evidence they had or trail they could have followed.

 **Well what do you guys think of my take of the Lake Kawaguchi event of Code Geass? I didn't want to just rewrite conversations with different scenes so I went with my gut and I'm kinda proud of myself for doing it. I had to replay CoD: MW2 to really get a feel of what it would have been like to infiltrate the hotel during a hostage situation but I hope it was fairly accurate. One change I did make to cannon besides the nightmare inducing Forced projected Oni was Nina never being saved by Euphemia which means no crazy stalker/fan-girl for Nina. Another change was the conversation he had with Kusakabe who in this version was going for a suicide assault with as much bodies as possible, something that we see in real life terrorist attacks across the board. Next chapter will explore the Britannian side a bit while the Six Houses discuss the fate of the JLF. We will also learn more about the JLF in the next chapter so please, like and review.**


	15. The Consequences of Refrain

**Well I don't know about you guys but I loved writing that last chapter, don't get me wrong-this story is fun to write but like most of you, I need to see some action every now and then to keep that thrill going. As most of you already guessed, Lelouch prefers to use the force like he would use Geass, to fool his foes to make them think what he wants them to or do as he wants them to. You can imagine that Suzaku uses his like he used the Lancelot and just use it to improve his already near superhuman physical skill (Spinzaku anyone?), I still don't know what I really want to do with Nunnally as her combat style can't be anything too aggressive…which isn't my best skill in writing but I'll figure something out. As you can imagine, this chapter will more of a reaction chapter to the bold nature of the Black Knights as even if Cornelia posed a media blackout of the event to save face, the witnesses are not all Britannian and therefore not within her control, so yeah-the involvement of the Black Knights will get out. I will have more action in this chapter which once more will be Kallen-centric seeing how she is a fan favourite and due to the set-up of this particular story-she hasn't been getting the attention she deserves.  
One last thing, this story will have next to nothing to do with the new Code Geass Movie as I'm trying to stick to the material that has been around for years so pls bear with me. (Also this have nothing to do with the fact I'm still waiting for the dubbed release in May, I'm too used to dubbed to just switch to subbed Code Geass)**

 **Chapter 15: The Consequences of Refrain**

 **25** **th** **August 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

(Viceroy's Palace)

"So…what do we know about this?" Cornelia asked her council of advisors made up of Guilford, Andreas, Nonette, Lloyd, Cecile, Jeremiah, Soresi and Villetta. Euphemia was in attendance as well as Cornelia wanted her point of view on the masked man seeing how she was close enough to him to actually have a conversation. It had only been a couple of days since the failed hotel jacking and the news still wouldn't shut up about it. The Black Knights have been particularly more active as of late as in just two short nights, they had conducted 6 different attacks across Honshu, and in each incident-all the police and military found was the bodies of the victims and the Black Knights targets tied up, ready for pick up.

It was really starting to get on Cornelia's nerves.

"Not much I'm afraid, when the hotel collapsed, it buried almost everything of use to us. All we do know is that Zero made use of high grade explosives." Andreas reported as he held the very short file they had on the incident, Zero left next to nothing for them to track or identify, not even bodies as they were either crushed in the hotel as it collapsed or were at the bottom of the lake.

"Is that so? Margrave Jeremiah, does that match up with your investigation into Zero?" Cornelia asked as she turned her gaze to the seated Margrave, he along with his own people had been tasked with researching both Zero and the Black Knights to see if they can any flaws or useful information they could use against them.

"Yes you highness. From what he were able to recover from both Shinjuku and his raids. We can safely assume that Zero has a way of acquiring much better quality equipment then every other terrorist group here in Area 11. Not even the JLF has as much resources as he does as from what we can tell-they too make use of this Glasgow remakes that call 'Burai'." Jeremiah reported as he pulled out some folders and handed a copy to everyone at the table. As he was doing this, Soresi took the chance to continue.

"We also know that Burai can barely match a Sunderland and largely depend on the skill of the pilots but going by the wreckage of Burai that we recover in both raids and 'battles' the terrorist, that even with pilots of skills more or less matching Sir Guilford, a Burai would still be no match for a Gloucester." Soresi said with a grimace as the Purebloods…or what was left of them were all equipped with Sunderland models, putting them at a disadvantage against their foes…something they were both not used to and not liking.

"But we know that the Black Knights make use of some kind of custom built knightmare that is capable of running circles around a Sunderland." Nonette said as she read through the file on what they had on the Black knights and saw they weren't kidding when they said they had more resources then the average terrorist group.

"That is correct Dame Enneagram. We can safely assume that the Black Knights have somehow been able to produce knightmares that exceed the capabilities of our standard knightmare-the Sunderland." Jeremiah responded to her inquiry.

"So they can field knightmares that much and I dare say-surpass our own?" Andreas asked as he like the rest of them weren't used to fighting foes with superior equipment, that's normally the other way around.

"Not so General Dalton, from what we know they don't have anything that can match a Gloucester." Soresi said.

"Even so, we didn't bring much of those with us, only about 30 so the situation is till rather distasteful." Cornelia thought aloud with a frown as she would have to re-work her whole plan to account for this.

"True but what I want to know is what Zero did to Kusakabe to get him to surrender?" Guilford said as he was the one who had to deal with the traumatized man and try to question him, all they got out of him were pleas for mercy and other dribble of no use to them.

"It can't have been pretty as he's still terrified that Zero will came for him. Princess Euphemia, you were there when this happened correct? Could you shed some light onto this?" Andreas asked as he and the rest turned their attention to the quiet girl who had just sat there.

"…The truth on the matter is that I still can't really fathom just what really happened, most of it shouldn't have been possible." Euphemia said after she collected herself, having been lost in thought about the incident.

"How so Sub-Viceroy?" Jeremiah asked.

"Well…for starters Zero appeared from the floor beneath me, he somehow blew the ceiling above him and from the off he just jumped out and dealt with the men escorting me with ease. He tackled me to the ground just as his men who were still at the bottom of the hole opened fire. This all happened in just seconds, by the time I realized what was going on, it was already over." Euphemia told them, surprising them that Zero would be able to pull such a stunt.

"Princess Cornelia. That must have been…" Guilford said as it dawned on him. Cornelia came to the same conclusion that he did as well.

"Yes, the message we got about him going to intercept the elevens taking her to Kusakabe. It seems he cut his travel time with another explosive." Cornelia said as she could see how explosives used in such a manner could speed things up.

"I don't think he did Viceroy, there wasn't explosion or large boom when he made that hole." Euphemia told her sister as she didn't think charges were used.

"Then how would have he done it as he couldn't of had the tools to make it take quick on hand?" Lloyd asked, making his presence known.

"That's just the first part that doesn't make sense." Euphemia said as she thought back to all the inconsistences she saw that night.

"How so?" Cornelia asker her sister, noticing how she was very troubled very since that night and wishing to know more about the incident.

"Well from the get go, he made clear that he wasn't an ally to the JLF or Kusakabe and even revealed he knew that it was a suicide attack from the very beginning as they never asked for a way out. When I sort of yelled at them, one of them looked ready to shoot me then and there but he just…froze." Euphemia told them at large as she thought back to how terrified the man seemed, even though at the time she couldn't imagine why but in hindsight, she did have a theory about it.

"He just stopped?" Nonette asked as that was very unusual behaviour for a number in their position.

"Yes…or more accurately he was scared stiff by whatever he saw as he dropped to his knees begging for mercy. It didn't make sense to me till later as the meeting soon fell apart as Zero took almost every opportunity to mock or otherwise talk down to Kusakabe, completely unafraid of him or the gun he had on us." Euphemia told them, gaining a very noticeable reaction from her sister and current viceroy of area 11.

"You mean to tell me that he put you into more danger?" Cornelia asked, barely containing her rage at the notion that that bastard purposefully made the already volatile situation worse.

"Yes, yes he did. Zero went on to reveal that his own men had routed Kusakabe's at every turn and had rescued the hostages. I think that's when the Lancelot made its move as Zero noted that the viceroy was now on the attack. That when the most unexplainable thing of the night happened." Euphemia confirmed for them, adding oil to the fire that as Cornelia's rage.

"What was that Euphie?" Nonette asked her, sensing that there was far more to be said about this.

"Kusakabe lost it and lunged at us, ready to cut us down and the still standing soldier took aim, I closed my eyes and waited for it but…nothing. Noting at all. I opened my eyes to see that Zero had somehow knocked Kusakabe into the wall behind Kusakabe, mind you that he not only hit the wall hard enough to severely daze him but said wall was 4m from the seat he was just sitting at." Euphemia told, shocking them that Zero apparently had the kind of physical strength needed to pull that off.

"He was able to hit him that hard, how can he have that kind of strength?" Andreas asked aloud as even he didn't have the upper body strength for that.

"That's wasn't the off part, that was how he somehow pulled the gun pointing soldier towards him and stabbed him through the chest with a blade made of glowing purple blade…it wasn't like any other blade I have ever seen as it had burned its way through the poor soul like hot knife through butter. He then summoned this…this…" Of course is wasn't since Euphie saw it fit to add on to the pile of impossibilities and inconsistencies that was Zero.

"This what Euphie?" Cornelia pressed, wanting to know what Zero had on him that would scare her little sister so much.

"This monster, it looked like a troll but much more terrifying and he made it…he made it pick up the screaming man that he scared earlier and crash him in its grip before smashing him into enough times to kill 10 men. "Euphemia whispered as she remembered the man's screams as he crushed into a bloody mess on the floor, Cornelia took one of her hands into hers to help soothe her which worked somewhat as her sister gave her a thankful smile.

"That's…that shouldn't be possible..." Nonette said aloud, speaking the thoughts of everyone present as they was no way in hell that Zero could do such a thing, it just wasn't possible.

"Believe me Dame Enneagram, it's very possible. I saw it happen right in front of me. After that, he turned off his power blade and threatened to have his beast devour a limb or two from Kusakabe if he didn't surrender to you, that's when I stopped him. I knew I couldn't do anything to him and so did he and he regarded me like I was a child, not a threat. After I convinced him to spare our mutual enemy he and his men escorted me to safety before they vanished. " Euphemia replied with a look of absolute seriousness as she stared the Knight of round right in the eyes, letting her see this was no joke.

"….Viceroy Cornelia, I believe I may have some evidence to add on to this." Jeremiah said gravely as he made a connection to another seemingly impossible event which involved Zero.

"Oh god, like he wasn't already a monster, what do you have Jeremiah?" Cornelia asked as she rubbed her head, already felling a headache coming on from all this.

"Well, from the autopsy done on Prince Clovis' royal guard captain, we know that COD(Cause of death) was electrocution but there isn't any source of power in the ghettos that could have given him such a shock as he was hit with enough power to kill 3 male full grown bulls. At the time we didn't make much of it but if Zero got himself a monster and some kind of new energy blade? Then he plausible that may have acquired a means to kill with that kind of electricity." Jeremiah told them right off his memory, allowing them to all see how he would come to that hypothesis about the whole Shinjuku incident.

"From what I'm hearing, Zero has found a way of minimizing my MVS technology to the point where it can be used like any other sword." Lloyd said, feeling insulted that someone not only ripped off his designs but somehow improved it, clearly he needed to pay more attention to news coming in on this group.

"I don't think that's it Lloyd, from what I know about your MVS swords, they still look like regular swords when not activated right?" Euphemia asked the eccentric somewhat made scientist, to which he nodded as it was a known fact amongst that that this was the case. After all they has all seen said blades in action at one point or another. "Well if that was the case I would have seen it but the only sword like object I saw on Zero's person was this odd looking curved sword handle, meaning that the handle somehow generated that purple beam." Euphemia finished, once more dropping something very hard to believe about Zero's choice in weaponry.

"Is that right, but how such a handheld device would even store the power necessary for such a feat? No way could it stored an energy filler with enough power to do so." Cecile asked her boss as the two quietly brainstormed how such a thing would be possible.

"So we can say about him is that he is a basket full of secrets and mysteries. I don't like fighting someone who I know little about, especially now that I know that has the equipment needed to fight us on a more or less even playing field." Cornelia said as she thought of all the things that they knew about this new threat and each and every one should have been impossible, at this rate-he'll surpass even that eleven Tohdoh as a miracle worker.

"Not true your highness. We do know some information about him." Jeremiah said, gaining everyone's attention.

"Yes, well I have been in charge of the investigation into Zero and we have found out some facts about him personally, for one he has been trained quite well in the act of combat as we have confirmed he took out a whole unit of Prince Clovis' royal guard with just a pistol. We know that is a natural when it comes to tactics as he was running circles around Prince Clovis and has been doing the same to the viceroy ever since she arrived in the country. But we able to discover that Zero may not be a number at all." Soresi said as he turned on the main screen for all of them to see their findings, gaining mild shock as it wasn't often that non-numbers foreigners caused unrest within the areas.

"How did you came to that conclusion?" Andreas asked.

"Well he listened to when he spoke, he may speak the native language fluently but he still doesn't speak it like a native would, he lacks certain quirks and subconscious traits that one has when they speak their native tongue. However, these traits are slight but nonetheless present whenever he speaks English." Villetta said as they let two different recordings of Zero speaking both Japanese and English play with their sound comparing software so they could all hear the subtle notes they were taking about. "Another things we noticed is how he carries himself, the limited body movements we have on cameras and wording. It doesn't match that of an eleven at all, the only thing we could compare it to it….was those born and raised in the Homeland." Villetta said as she dropped the mic (so to speak) on them, shocking them at the fact that their biggest enemy outside of the E.U. was a fellow Britannian himself.

"Are you telling us that Zero is a Britannian?!" Guilford yelled, never before could he think that a fellow countryman could turn to terrorism slash treason, what possible reason could there be for such as the empire had been careful to ensure that even commoners were taken care of as their standard of living(amongst those with full Britannian citizenship) was the highest in the world.

"Not only that but he may be from a well-off family, maybe low ranking nobility as he has too good a grasp on Britannian combat tactics and formations, no foreigner could know that." Soresi said as he showed them the notes they had on the masked man and how he knew things about the empire that no average commoner could get their hands on, only the nobility would be able to even attempt to access some of the stuff that Zero apparently knew about them.

"So Zero could potentially be a traitor to the empire?" Nonette asked, not liking how the situation turned more unfavourable by the minute.

"It seems that way, it might explain some of his tech as we are the world leaders in everything war related. It wouldn't be too hard for a fellow brit to get his hands on high grade weaponry like that, even more so if he is nobility." Lloyd said unaffected by the last bombshell as unlike most in the room, his sociopathic nature makes it very easy for him to see why the average Tom would go against the empire, most of the time you just needed to look past what the media (propaganda) told you on the TV to see just how unholy the empire was.

"So what do we do about him then, we need a solution to this problem, not theories." Cecile asked as this wasn't a position she liked. As the rest brainstormed about this, Euphemia let that last statement sink in and think to herself about it.

'Nobility…Zero…' Euphemia thought to herself as she remembers the part of her conversation with Zero she didn't tell the rest.

(Flashback)

"By the way your highness, congrats on becoming the sub-viceroy." Zero said out of the blue as they made their way to the lifeboat which would take Euphemia to safety and her sister.

"It's not a position I'm particularly fond of." Euphemia said as she frowned at him, wondering why he would bring the topic up at a time like this.

"I wouldn't expect you to, after all, your brother did have to die for you to gain it, he begged for me to spare him you know, begged like a dog with the same tongue that ordered the deaths of thousands of innocent people. Pathetic, he couldn't even die with his pride and honour intact, if he ever had any to begin with." Zero went on, not really caring whether she stilled cared for Clovis or not as he spoke nothing of but the man worst qualities.

"I suppose that is why you tried to kill him?" Euphemia asked, she had already made her peace with this but still…she still cared for her disgraced brother even if she was guilty of such heinous actions.

"Mostly, but there was another reason to it." Zero said as they made it outside to the small peer.

"Then why?" Euphemia asked, what possible reason could zero have to have kill him more than that?

"Because he was an offspring of that egotistical warmonger Charles zi Britannia…that reminds me. Aren't you one of his children sub-viceroy?" Zero revealed, shocking her as he came to a stop, she noticed that she along was surrounded on three sides by armed men while Zero pulled back his cloak to let her see his lightsaber hilt, scaring her as he could easily kill her himself if not have one of his men do it. What's to stop him if he has a grudge against her whole family? "Relax, I'm going to kill you…at least for now but do remember this." Zero assured her as he let his cloak back into place, hiding his torso and hilts from sights as she was ushered into one of the boats but before she left, he dropped a cryptic message for her. "The blood of the mother spilt on will be wiped clean with the blood of the white Lion." And with that, Zero and his men faded in to the shadows as the lifeboat carried her further and further away from the hotel.

(End of Flashback)

'What could you have possible meant by that? Did you lose your mother to Britannia's expansionist policy that my father started when he came to power? Or maybe she was a commoner one of my siblings wronged? No, he said the 'lion', meaning king of the jungle so that could only mean my father…maybe Schneizel since he is the prime minister and he's been doing more and more of our father's duties in his stead but I can't imagine anyone having a grudge against him, well maybe he bested them at ches-!' Euphemia thought to herself before she suddenly stopped as she thought about just one word from that line of thought.

"Chess." She muttered to herself. However her muttering was heard by Cornelia who turned to speak with her about it.

"Hmm, you say something Euphie?" Cornelia asked her sister who had been strangely quiet for the past few minutes.

"Hmm, oh no. nothing. Just thinking." Euphemia answered, wanting to remain out of the conversation for the moment.

"About what?" Cornelia pressed, dammit why did her sister need to be so inquisitive.

"Oh you know, if I should host a fundraiser again this year." Euphemia answered as she has been doing fundraisers for the past three years so it wasn't like it was an odd thing for her.

"…Alright but with the situation as it is, I don't think that's a good idea." Cornelia relented as she brought into her excuse before turning back to the discussion, leaving Euphemia for the time being.

"You think so, maybe I won't then." Euphemia answered her as she returned to her own thoughts. 'The blood of the mother…losing his mother or mother figure…having been bested by Schneizel in a game of chess….having a personal grudge against the royal family, more specially the emperor himself.'

" _I will hunt down whoever killed my mother, and I WILL destroy them all and if you and any other royal are found to be connected to it…May heaven have mercy on your souls as I cast them to the lowest pits of hell."_

'No…he couldn't be…' That one quote, that one vow from the past…she could only think of one person or persons more accurately who could possible fit into such a suspect mould but…no she couldn't even imagine it. They had been dead for 10 long years. Why would they return now, why not sooner?

Not known to the people in the room, their entire meeting had been listened into by a microphone placed on the light above the table mere minutes before they had arrived. On the rooftop nearest to the building, an agent of V.V had been listening in the whole time. They were a rather short girl of around 13 years of African ancestry, dyed blonde hair and brown eyes. She had been sent to Area 11 to scout ahead for future agents as when they tried sending them in first, they found nothing of value as the Black knights not only have high end software and hardware security protocols but they operate completely on a need to know basics. If that person doesn't need to know something, they won't know anything about it. There was also the fact that security codes change regularly, especially if people with access to valuable information suddenly as clear that the Black Knights will not accept a leak of any kind.

"So, Zero is a Britannian is he? Lord V.V will wish to know about this." She said to herself as she packed her gear, cleaned up the site and was gone within 5 minutes, never being seen by human eyes as she made her way down the stairs towards the back exit.

 **25** **th** **August 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Sakuradite mines:**

"Is this true?" one of the members of the Six Houses of Kyoto asked as along with the five other members discussed the very same affair that Cornelia was. They are all seated in a traditional Japanese looking teahouse with but a single candle to light the room.

"Yes, Zero was in fact there, lending a hand to the viceroy." Another member confirmed as they had all finished reading the report on it that their spies in the government were able to acquire about it. After-all, they weren't dumb enough to believe what the media said about it, even if they only left out some details rather than full on lying about it.

"More like doing her job if the reports are to be believed. He killed just about every JLF member there!" Another member grumbled as he couldn't believe that Zero as actually able to sneak in and do what Cornelia couldn't, which as to kill everyone present.

"Calm yourself, it wasn't as big a loss as we thought, they have only lost one of the Raiko cannons." The first speaker said as he placated the rather angry member of the group.

"Yes but because of all this negative press, our agents are reporting that the JLF's already dropping recruitment rate as hit an all-time low." Another voice said, reminding them all of what they had discussed the previous week.

"Added to the fact that they haven't been all that successful as of late, with Cornelia around almost every operation they have launched in the past three months has ended in failure with a significant casualty rate." The second voice admitted.

"Not to mention they have lost over 60 knightmares in these attacks, we can't just keep sending them more if they are going to waste them." Another voice said, this one clearly of that of a young woman rather than the voice of an older man such as the others.

"How could you say that? They have been loyal sons and daughters of Japan for ten long years, they have not given up the fight like so many others!" a new voice yelled out in anger at such an opinion.

"That isn't what I'm saying here, yes they have been loyal and have fought for ten long years but that's just the point. Ten years with no results to show for it, sure they have their moments but that as against Clovis, Cornelia is nothing like a disgrace of a brother." The other voice counted, sounding to all that she didn't really care if she offended them or not as she was speaking nothing but facts.

"As much as it pains me to admit, she is right old friend, to that end that is why I called this meeting. To inform you all that I'm not so sure about sending the JLF the Guren." One of the voices agreed with the lone women of the group.

"Ha! If that's true-who do you think would be worthy of it then?" another asked sarcastically.

"…The Black Knights." Another voice stated, this one sounding older than the rest but far more intense, just from his words along, he silences the entire group. One of the other voices tried to counter with notable less fire in his tone and sounding far more reserved.

"You can't-!" one of them tried to argue but he was cut off.

"I am, Zero has accomplished more in months he has been active then all the other resistance groups combined. He has been able to not only supply his men with adequate supplies and weapons but if out spies are to be believed, he has devised training regiments as well as numerous non-combat branches which are crucial to ran an efficient campaign with the Britannians. He had proven worthy of her aid and support." The voice of the clearly leader cut him off, not willing to an argument.

"I propose we put it to a vote, if it is decided to contact Zero, we will give him a test to silence the naysayers of the group. If he passes-he gains our support, if not we leave him be. All for it?" The woman of the group proposed so to help ease the tension in the room. Luckily the leader agreed to it.

"Then lets us vote. All for it raise your hands." The leader, lady and two others hands rose. "And all opposed." The remaining two member's hands rose. "Then it is decided, we will send an informant to one of his people." The leader said before the meeting was ended, signalled by the light going out.

(Later that day)

"Refrain, you mean that drug that's been going around for a few years now right?" Kallen asked her superior officer over the phone, she was on some time off in the Tokyo Settlement and had decided to go to an open market, there weren't that many vendors out but there were more than enough customers about since it was a rather good day to be out and about.

"Yeah, it's a psychotropic. Makes whoever uses the stuff relive their past. As you can imagine that's its very popular here in Area 11." Her C.O told her over the phone, she had long gotten used to the fact her Korean born boss would unknowingly use the name of places dictated by current maps, as far as he was concerned, Japan was Area 11 till somebody did something about it.

"Yeah, it's actually harder to think of people who don't want to go back to the days before the Britannians invaded." Kallen answered

"From what our sources can confirm, this stuff was specifically made and targeted towards the natives of Britannia's newly conquered territories. We have been hitting both the production and trade centres of the stuff for a while now but due to our efforts, they are new importing most of the stuff. We have been scouting a warehouse where we believe a large amount of it is not only stored but where a deal is going down tonight. Zero will be there as well, says he wants to see us in action. Once we have confirmation, we'll make our move." He told her as he relayed the last of the info to her.

"Right, I'll be waiting." Kallen said as she hung up her phone, just as she put it away she heard some commotion down in the central plaza, about five thugs were beating on one of the vendors.

"Come one Eleven, say something. You are sorry aren't yer. Bowing your heads is what you Elevens do best right?" One of them mocked as he kicked the defenceless man who had just crawled up into a ball to defend himself the best he could. Everyone present saw this including many other working class elevens but all chose to not intervene, turn their heads and walk away, leaving the poor guy to his fate.

"Elevens…" Kallen muttered to herself as she moved to help the man, only to be stop by a gentle but firm hand on her shoulder.

"Hey." A voice said behind her, getting her attention as she turned to face the newcomer.

"You're…Kallen right? Of the student council. We haven't really had a chance to meet but I'm one of the news guys. Lelouch Lamperouge." Lelouch introduced himself, like Kallen he was also wearing his casual clothes.

"Yeah I'm Kallen, Kallen Stadtfeld. Listen I need to do something so if you could-" Kallen tried to explain in her most passive voice to hide the fury she wanted to unleash on the thugs, it wouldn't do for meek Kallen Stadtfeld to have a fire in her eyes at the plight of an eleven.

"There are five of them Kallen, someone with your poor health would barely be able to take on just one." Lelouch stated, reminding her that her fake persona wasn't supposed to even be capable of such a feat, he looked over her shoulder to the incident with a blank face, showing no reactions if there was one to be seen.

"So you're saying that I should just ignore it?" Kallen asked him.

"Take a good look Kallen." Lelouch told her as he pointed to the hotdog picture on the man's shirt before gesturing to the hotdog stand right next to them. "If we help him out today, he won't be able to sell anything tomorrow. It was his choice to become a Britannian slave." He reminded her as the guy was kicked in the face when he tried to look up. "It's sad but that's just the price that must be paid for working in the settlement." He finished with a shrug of his shoulder, looking like he didn't really care about it.

"But even so…" Kallen shot back, wanting to argue about it more as she couldn't stand such an act. However, before they could continue one of the thugs noticed them looking in their direction.

"You got a problem over there?" the spotter asked as he and his friends walked towards them, finally leaving the beaten hotdog vendor alone.

"Not feeling sorry for this Eleven are you?" Another asked as they reached them.

"Nay, they feel the same way we do, don't you guys?" Another asked/stated with a grin as he gestured back towards the beaten man.

"Not quite, I do feel sorry for you though, after all-you five must be so pathetic that the only way to bring any meaning to your shitty lives is by picking some number who just wants to make ends meet, right?" Lelouch told them with a grin of his own, getting a very visible reaction for his troubles as they all looked very angry now.

"What was that pretty boy? I'll watch my month if I was you, you could end up in hospital." One of them said as they circles them.

"What? Trying to act tough in front of you girl or something?" Another warmed.

"Oh please, one-she's just a friend. Two-unlike you I don't need to act tough to cover up for my so many, many flaws." Lelouch continued on taunting them, not afraid that they had the numbers advantage.

"You mind saying that again pretty boy?" One of them said as he pulled out a switchblade from his pocket.

"What, so you not only stupid but deaf? Man, God really wasn't merciful when he made you right." Lelouch asked with a shit eating grin, Kallen wasn't sure if he was really smart or just really crazy as he just didn't know when to stop.

"Alright that's it, you going dow-!" The knife guy started as he pulled his right arm back and went for a stab to the chest, Kallen was about to jump in on reflex but stopped when she saw Lelouch sidestepped the attack, grabbed the thug extended arm by the hand(with the knife still held by it), pulled the man closer and kneed him in the gut, forcing the air out of his lungs and making him drop the weapon as he moved back for one of the others to catch him before he fell to his knees.

"Decent power, terrible stance, horrendous delivery. If you think such an attack will actually land then you're even dumber than I thought, which an achievement I didn't think possible." Lelouch stated as he picked up the switchblade and started to look it over. "Now how about you waste of flesh and bone go find somewhere else to be annoying." Lelouch advised them as he saw them getting ready for a fight.

"You son of a Bi-!" Another yelled as he went for a punch but like his buddy he was intercepted.

Brutally.

This time Lelouch chose to catch the fist mid-strike while bending his own hand, catching the blow rather awkwardly. The second he did caught it however, he twisted in own arm back into its normal position while doing the exact opposite to his opponent. Breaking his wrist, sadly for him before he could even scream in pain, he was met with a devastating punch to the face which knocked a few teeth loose and knocking him onto his back.

All within 3 seconds.

"Dare insult my mother you cretin and I assure you, it will take more than a few paramedics to scrap you off the bloody floor when I'm done. The exiled prince threatened as he started doing tricked with the switchblade, showing them that he was very skilled with the weapon, luckily the thugs took his advice and help the two beat men to their feet and cobbled away with their pride broken.

"You said we shouldn't help him!" Kallen whispered/yelled at him as she jogged to the man to check on him, leaving Lelouch to follow.

"I did say that and I didn't help, they came to me and tried to start something, I merely showed them I and both ready and capable of defending myself against such." Lelouch responded as he followed after her while he pocketed his new switchblade.

"You alright?" Kallen asked the man as he got to his knees, once he saw her face it was like the beating never happened as a bright and friendly smile appeared.

"A Britannian, what can I get for you, how about a nice California hotdog miss?" he asked as he wobbled back to his stand and got things ready to serve them, leaving a frowning and concerned Kallen to follow after him.

"Make that two and don't hold out on the mustard." Lelouch spoke up as he came to the stand, looking bored with it all and gaining a fiery glare from Kallen at his callousness. The vendor took his order and quickly begun making their meal, within a minute it was done and he handed one Kallen and another to Lelouch.

"Th-that will be 4 pounds sir." He said as he winced from the beating but tired his best to hide the pain.

"Here you go, keep the catch." Lelouch said as he pulled out his wallet and handed the man a single bill. Once the man saw it however, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"B-but sir! This is 100 pounds!" He said, surely Lelouch gave him the wrong note, it couldn't be right.

"I said keep it, consider it an apology for the shit you have to deal with." Lelouch told him as he too Kallen's hand and dragged her off before she made a scene, leaving the vendor with tears in his eyes as he thanked Kami for this wonderful tip before quickly pocketing it before it could be stolen.

(Later)

"In some ways, Area 11 is better off than the old Japan ever was, the in-made economy and military power of the empire has stabilized its economic position in the world. Elevens can even attain full citizenship through the legal process, it's easy to become an Honorary Britannian, it's just a question of pride really but I can certainly understand why most would rather die with their pride. The empire has taken just about everything else and expects them to just forget it ever happened." Lelouch thought aloud as he finished off his hotdog, he and Kallen had moved to another area of the park taken a seat on a public bench where they watched the water works of the nearby fountains.

"And?" Kallen asked him.

"Hmm?"

"What does Lelouch Lamperouge think about all this? Knowing all that, what do you want?" Kallen asked, she wanted to see what he was all about, and seeing how she made missed a lot of her classes, they never really had a chance to meet up on campus.

"I want a world where my wife and kids can be happy, that's all really. But, most can chose to lead a better life by bowing their heads, they just need to be willing to suffer the consequences of such an act." Lelouch answered her as he turned his gaze to the clouds.

"What do you mean by that?" Kallen asked, she couldn't see how such a free spirited person would be so willing to just bow.

"Hmph, I've seen people who never stand up for themselves drown in the mud while those who fight bend and break from the strain of standing tall. It is as my teacher back in France once told me: ' _Think carefully about your choices, think about the outcomes of your actions and be prepared for the consequences of them, if you are not, they will crush you_.'" He quoted as he thought back to his force teachings and how his masters made sure he never took a risk without fully understanding it.

"Rivalz was right, you are pretty dark." Kallen responded as she didn't think he had a cynical viewpoint on life.

"I'm just a pessimist, after-all when you expect and plan for failure, you're not caught off guard when it finds you." Lelouch told her, touching his once damaged arm without realizing it.

"So you're not the kinda of guy your put all his eggs in one basket, no matter what?" Kallen probed further.

"Hmmm, I wouldn't say that. I'm more than willing to even place my life in a single basket, so long as that basket it both cared for and improved over time. If I weren't, I would have never found love." He told her with a smile as he recalled all the joy Reyla had bright into his life…how she saved him from being swallowed by the dark side.

"Oh yeah, I heard about her. I didn't think you the kinda of guy to go for older women." Kallen joked, kinda of happy to see him with an honest smile on his face.

"In my defence, most guys are when they're young. But I have been on edge lately. That hotel incident really had me worried for her. It was why I wanted those thugs to fight me…good stress relief." He revealed as he had been worried about the future if idiots like Kusakabe was out and about, Reyla had promised to be more careful and he was thinking of getting Nagata as her guard seeing how he was doing well in his missions and already was leading a full platoon into combat.

"I can certainly understand, there was a point when I would say the same about my own life." Kallen said as her mood darkened as she thought about her own family life.

"Oh, do tell. I can't be the only one sharing." Lelouch said with an understanding smile, one friends would give each other to ease them.

"Well…I guess is started when my father left my mother and remarried. He didn't wait long since he was remarried in 4 months flat." Kallen told him, bitter that her father as so willing to leave the women he supposedly loved just because she was now a number, and to re-marry so soon. She never called him her father again after that.

"Damn, what was he in Vegas?" Lelouch asked, surprised that her father jumped ship so quick and went for another like that, mind you at this point-he has no idea that her mother was Japanese and now considered a number.

"I wish he was, then it wouldn't have lasted and she'll would have left him soon but 9 years in and still going strong, maybe it's because he almost always in the homeland doing business." Kallen answered as she last saw him for Christmas about three years prior, after that he never was there, only calling home every now and then.

"Oh I know a thing or two about shitty fathers, trust me." Lelouch assured her as he thought about his own father and family in general, just thinking of him made him want to have Pendragon blown to bits through an orbital bombardment but he knew that wasn't the way to go, at least not at this point.

"Afterwards things just fell apart, my mother, my real mother become a mess of a women and my older brother passing away a couple years back didn't help much, it just made things worse. I supposed she never got over my dad since she become a maid in our house about a year into the divorce." Kallen told him, thinking back to how…dead Kasumi was when she heard the news that her son was dead. It was the only time she defended her as she fired three maids for mocking her about it….after beating the ever loving crap out of them.

It's good to be considered a noble seeing how they never pressed charges for it.

"A maid in what was once her own house, she must have swallowed her pride bigtime." Lelouch muttered to himself, picking the information apart to find any patterns, finding a pattern he wasn't liking about this.

"Yeah, but she was never really good at it, over time she become clumsier and clumsier, watching her everyday just become…it as…" Kallen tried thinking of way to describe the feeling but was coming up empty.

"Painful." Lelouch asked/stated as he could imagine the feeling.

"Like you wouldn't believe, I wanted her gone so much, for her to move and with her life and move one form my dad. I wanted her to have a life again but every single time I told her to just leave she would just apologise and continue working with a damned smile on her face. Anyway I haven't seen or heard from my family since last year when I moved out and got my own place near school." Kallen silently raged as she thought of all the times she wanted her gone, for her to move on and enjoy life again, to stop being so damn weak. Unfortunately that was the final piece of the puzzle that Lelouch needed to see the truth, he was both surprised and saddened by the fact that for so many years Kallen couldn't see the same.

"Oh Kallen." Was all he said as he looked away, not looking her in the eye.

"What?" Kallen asked, finding his behaviour to be off.

"You mean you never saw it? The reason she stayed all those years?" He asked, not really sure if wanted her to have seen it, maybe being ignorance would be better in this case. Maybe not.

"Why, because she couldn't let go of the past?" Kallen asked, not seeing the point.

"Because she refused to let go of you Kallen, think about it. You just said that your father was almost never home so she couldn't have been staying there for dirt-bag. You lost your brother making you her only child left, lastly she must have smiled a lot whenever you were around, didn't she?" Lelouch revealed, seeing that she needed to hear this…even if it broke her heart.

"Y-yeah, yeah she only would say whenever I was around, at least that what's the other maids would gossip about." Kallen told him, no that she thought about it, it was odd that Kasumi would only smile when she was around.

"Kallen, she loved you like any good mother loves their child, she took that job to still be a part of your life, to watch to grow-even if it was from the perspective of an outsider." Lelouch keep breaking down her walls so she may see the truth, a truth that was shattering every perception she had on her mother.

"But…but…that can't be right, it can't be." Kallen tried to refuse, if only to keep herself from seeing how terribly she had treated her own mother.

"Kallen, you left your father's house a year ago, is she still working there?" He asked, that one question breaking through to her, making her want, no NEED to make things right with her mother.

"I don't-I gotta go!" Kallen yelled as she broke character and made a dash to her car to go find her.

'I have to find her, I need to apologize before it was too late' Kallen thought to herself as she made her way to her car.

'Be prepared for the consequences your actions, if you are not, they will crush you…I hope you are prepared for them Kallen, I really do.' Lelouch thought to himself as he got up from his seat and walked towards to his own car.

(Later, at the Stadtfeld Manor)

"Where is she?" Kallen yelled as she barged into the main hall of her old house, shocking the staffers present.

"Mistress Kallen, we weren't expecting you." One of them said as she regained her wits about her, only to once more lose them when the angry redhead made eye contact with her and matched over.

"Don't care, where is my mother?" Kallen demanded, getting right in her face.

"Mistress Kallen, Lady Sierra is not at hom-!" The family butler tried telling her to save the new maid from the intense look as he and the rest were used to it.

"I'm not talking about that blonde bimbo, I talking about Kasumi Kōzuki, where is she?" Kallen ordered of him now as she turned her attention to the usual silent butler.

"Mistress Kallen, I don't know how to say this but…"He started but stopped as he didn't wish to be the bearer of bad news but clearly the young lade was having none of it.

"Just tell me already." Kallen looked close to begging now, he didn't wish her crying either so he chose the lesser of two evils.

"She resigned shortly after you left, I'm afraid that none of us know where she went. She picked up her last pay check and left." He told her before, she stood still for a moment before she ran out of the mansion almost as quick as she had arrived. "Mistress Kallen!" he called out to her but she had long since ran out of sight as when he made it to the main door, she was already gone.

"I need to find her, I only have a few hours before the raid." Kallen said to herself as made her way to her car once more and drive off like a bat out of Hell.

After this, Kallen spent the rest of her time trying to find her mother but with their old house long since destroyed and not having the contact details of most her mother's old friends. She was forced to call up Ohgi, he wasn't as much help as she hoped as all the people he could direct her to knew just as much as she did. She checked everyplace she could think of in the settlement, the fringe districts where honorary Britannians live, even the inner ghettos for her. She even checked up local stores and other places to see if they saw anything, one place saw a women matching her description a few days' prior buying groceries. From what the shop owner had seen, she appeared to be muttering to herself, twitchy and scratching her neck like she was really nervous, she just brought some milk and bread and was gone. Eventually she was forced to call it quits and head to the base to get ready for their raid, as much as it hurt to admit, her mother had to wait for now.

(Later that day in the industrial area of the settlement.)

"Hurry up you people the buyer will be here any moment!" One of the two men in suits yelled as their lackeys moved the refrain and other products into trucks for transport, they were being as quietly as they could to avoid tipping off the authorities as Euphemia had really been cracking down on them, not the mention the raids the Black Knights pulled off on a nearly nightly basic.

"This needs to be done soon, those damn Black knights have already hit five of my plants in the last couple of days alone, nearly got captured at the 2nd one." He associate replied as he rubbed his bullet wound on his arm, he was lucky he got away when he did as last he heard, the whole place was burned down with most of them still inside.

"When will Princess Cornelia capture them, we're losing hundreds of thousands of profits. Just the other day, they assassinated my top enforcer, blew up the frickin car he was in!" The other grumbled as he flinched at the memory of watching the before mention car pull off only to blow up just as it was taking the corner.

"He was lucky, last I heard, being captured by those elevens isn't any better, they make you spill your guts and quite literally spill your guts." The survivor replied before one of their lackeys ran up to them.

"Sir, his here." He told them before he pointed to the side door which rolled up for a rather expensive car to drive. It closed just as the garage door behind it closed and the driver stepped out to open the back door for their rather wealthy and obvious noble customer to climb out. They walked up to meet him halfway.

"It's good to see you fine gentlemen, the merchandise is being prepared as we speak." One of them said as they shook his hand, all three turning to see the operation.

"Good, I don't like to wait." The noble told them as he narrowed his eyes at the sight of so many 'unclothe' commoners.

"Too bad you'll be waiting from hell." A familiar and very unwelcome voice spoke up out of the blue, getting all, of them to jump in fright.

"Wa-!" The noble begun to say before he was shot through the back of the head. The two remaining partners turned their attention to the walkway above them where, right before them stood Zero along with three of his men. Before anything else could be done the very same garage door that opening for the noble was shot to pieces from the outside, in the bullet storm another three people (all workers) were shot and killed. The now hole-ridden door was them kicked down by another one of Zero troops, he was companied by five others.

"The Black Knights have arrived bitches!" one of them mocked as he opened fire, allowing his allies time to quickly enter and take cover as a firefight started up. The thugs started to try and fight back but they were dropping like flies, as the fight crawled on, two of the Black knights exclusive knightmares charged in and with their head mounted SMGs blasted apart any opposition as the BK infantry advanced deeper into the building.

"What the hell is those?" One of the thugs yelled as he tried to pick off a target but each and every time he had a bead, the head would pop right back into cover and another would pop up to try and shot him.

"Knightmares!" Another panicked and run, dropping his weapon as Kallen and her C.O Kim Yong just rolled through, shooting the thugs as they ran. It was really no contest and was kinda sad but they had a job to do. Besides, it wasn't the first time Kallen no qualms on blasting these thugs for all the people they took advantage of for their own gain. The only ones meant to survive were the leaders since they would have the most information to spill.

" **Beta-2, head for that garage door, out prize should in** **there**." Kim said over the radio as he headed for the large garage doorway by the back of the place. Odds were that there were more waiting for them in there.

" **Roger that Beta-1**." Kallen responded half-heartedly as she wasn't really in this but none the less carried one and crashed through the door into the back room. The place was dark as the lights were off but she was till picking up numerous heat signatures so she quickly switched over night vision, only to be shocked and disgusted at what she saw.

"What the hell is this?" Kallen asked herself as Beta-1, Zero and the rest made their way to her. All around the room were makeshift operating tables with elevens strapped to them, most if not all muttering, talked or screaming in joy and happiness, lost in their memories. Those who weren't didn't look like they could as they were clearly not conscious, if even alive. Blood smears were all over the place and some doctors were still present, standing over the elevens who were missing organs from their open chest cavities.

" **Looks like an organ harvesting plant, dammit I didn't think there was one here**." Zero said over the comm, he wasn't told of this as he would came more prepared if this was what he was to expect.

" **Sir, I thought we took down the last one two weeks ago**." One of his troops asked as they all took up positions in cover as they ordered the doctors to freeze and to drop all the tools they were holding. While this was happening, Kallen noticed a few heat signatures behind a closed curtain but she thought she saw a head of brown hair as well.

"Isn't that…?" Kallen asked herself as she saw the head move but before she could do anything else.

" **Beta-2 look out!** " one of the troops called over the radio as he saw a shadow moving, just as he called this one, another found the light and turned them on, revealing the shadow to be a 2 refurbished Glasgows used only by one group in the Area.

"Knightpolice?" Kallen asked herself as she moved out of the way of Glasgow burst from its machine pistol.

"Damn, this whole thing is going to hell. **Corrupted bastards, Beta-2, draw them away from here before you light this place is gonna like Christmas**." Kim said to himself before he turn to the radio to issue orders as he fired at another Glasgow which though it could sneak up on them, blowing off its arm before it manage to retreat, leaving Kim to give chase. While this was happening, Kallen was pursuing her own would be ambusher, the Glasgow really was showing its age as it was almost child's-play to dodge its shots while the few that it home didn't do more than bounce off her armour, clearly its load-out wasn't made to take on other knightmares of higher quality, Burai maybe but that weapon wouldn't do any good against anything Sunderland level and higher..

"Like that puny little thing will do you any good, this is a gun!" Kallen yelled as she took aim and fired with her own 55m rifle, blasting apart the cargo drawers the corrupt cops was using for cover, this did however give them the chase to avoid being torn to shreds by Kallen's AP rounds.

"Bastards know how to hide but not how to fight, cowards." Kallen said to herself as she had to decide who to pursue as they two Glasgows had went on separate paths.

" **Beta-2, I got one, the other one is all yours**." Zero said over the radio, surprising her as she didn't see how he just did that. He hadn't brought his Stacker with him for this job.

" **How'd you take one down, you don't have a knightmare**." Kallen asked as she did as he told her and continued pursing the one she could still see.

"I have my ways, now go!" Zero said, unknown to her was that he had tracked one of them down and with his lightsaber, had slashed the knightmare nearly in two by the waist before cutting the legs off at the knees, leaving it disabled but the pilot more than healthy enough for interrogation later. Kallen in her end was making headway as by now she had caught up and had blasted apart the gun using hand, leaving it with only its small combat knife. Deciding she had played with this fool long enough, Kallen fired her slash harkens to the higher up drawers and quickly shot up, once there she raced ahead of the older model, allowing the fool to think she had somehow lost interest. From her perch, she fired on him, hitting the cockpit blocked and blasting four large holes in hit, a moment later the museum piece war machine collapsed as into its side, leaking blood and oil from the destroyed cockpit block.

After that, it didn't take long for the rest of the knightpolice present to be defeated and either killed or captured, from the thugs who were present, most of them met their end in the firefight. They however had to stay much longer than they thought as most of the people present were too high to comprehend what was happening while others needed medical attention before they could be moved. They were able to find out from one of the surgeons, they had stumbled upon an illegal organ harvesting plant where elevens who can't pay their refrain debt end up, after they found where the corpses, another two surgeons were shot in the spot for it. Luckily they had back-up on standby as it didn't take long for trucks and BK medics to arrive and begin transferring them to one of their facilities. Kallen was sitting by her knightmare when one of the medics approached her.

"Mam, Zero wishes to see. He says that it's important." The medical officer told her as she started to lead he back the way she came.

"Lead the way." Kallen responded as she flowed the lady back to the offices that Zero was using to review the evidence they had acquired. It didn't take too long to get there, once they had the officer made her back down to her patients. Kallen knocked on the door and once she was given permission, she entered.

"Sir!" Kallen said as she saluted her boss who sat leisurely on the cheap officer chair as he read through the manifest. If she didn't know better she'll say he looked like he wasn't even paying attention to them.

"Sit." Zero told her without even looking up to face her, once he heard the sound of her taking her seat, he turned his attention to her. "I can imagine that you are wondering why I called you. Yes?"

"Yes sir, I am." Kallen confirmed for him.

"Then I'll jump straight to the point, is your mother alive Kallen?" Zero asked her out of the blue, catching her off guard at the sheer randomness of the question, it took a moment for her to collect her thoughts and answer him.

"Hmmm…yes sir, she is but it's been same time since I last saw her." Kallen told him as she grew a frown as she remembered the last time she and her mother actually talked.

"Is that right." Zero mused aloud before he closed the case file and took out a picture for her to see. "Is this her?" Zero asked as she showed a picture of an exhausted Kasumi who was laying on some kind of hospital bed from the looks of it.

"That's her! Where did you get that picture?" Kallen asked, she didn't really care just how Zero had found her, all that matters that she now had a solid lead of where to find her.

"This is one of the people who were having their organs stolen, she is missing her left kidney right now and has been put under for about a few hours now, she kept mumbling your name in her sleep they the medics who knew you thought it best to check it out." Zero told her, smashing her hopes with the realization that her own _mother_ was being chopped up for spare parts like some stolen car.

"No…no you mean that she." Kallen couldn't even imagine it, she didn't want that her sweet mother was reduced to…

"I'm afraid so, all we knew that all the organs were being shipped to the federation in the morning, we got here in time to save her but with the blood and organ loss combined with the very high amounts of refrain they found in her blood…they don't like her chances. I already have stationed people her to try and catch the buyer but with them likely being federation citizens there's not much we can do without risking those Eunuchs try and pull something."

"…Can I see her, please?" Kallen meekly asked with her head down.

"Of course, follow me." Zero said as she stood up and walked around the desk to the door, he opened it and allowed Kallen to step out first before he left along with her and with her to his rear, made their way to the make-shift medical area. They passed by the beds of those being treated before they made it to a sort of private area where she saw her. Kasumi was laying on a camping bed, muttering her name and other things like she was told, she was connected to all sorts of medical equipment and looked deadly pale. Like she was in a trance, Kallen wobbled over to her side before he knees buckled and she fell down. It took a minute for it to sink in before she took his mother's cold hand into her own, struggling to hold back tears.

"It is the effect of Refrain on the user, it's still in her system so she should be having pleasant dreams right now. But from what we can tell, she had been on the stuff for at least 6 years now based on how addicted to the stuff she must be." The medic told her out of the blue, predicting the question she was going to ask and answering it beforehand. Like most of the senior members of the Black Knight medical staff, he used to practice medicine before the fall of Japan so he was used to delivering bad news to family members.

"Is that why she was so clumsy?" Kallen asked as she recalled bow over time, her mother become more and more coordinated and blundering, knocking over vases and the like. Was that an early sign of drug addiction she had missed?

"Yes, unfortunately one of the side effects is gradual loss of co-ordination and motor function, it isn't all that rare for long tern paralysis to kick in. we have her scheduled for some treatment which should minimise the damage but…" The doctor told her as he had read up on the effects of refrain to help treat it, these were the classic signs of it which sadly enough caused many Japanese to lose their jobs due to their regular decreasing motor skills.

"Isn't there anything else you can do for her?" Kallen begged of him, the tears making her eyes appear glossy.

"There are a few procedures we have been working on over the years for these types of situation but each one of them costs at the lowest 65,000 pounds monthly and last for a minimum of 8 months. Even then, there are no sure-fire way that this will be successful." The doctor responded, hating the fact that the medicine and procedures that people desperately needed were almost out of reach due to cost, he always wondered just why they cost so much when most people who needed them couldn't afford such. At the reveal of the news, Kallen walls crumbled and she felling to sobs and tears as she cried over her mother's bed, wishing beyond anything that she could still access her father's account but she had given it up when she left, now all she could access the funds to pay for her classes and some pleasures, even if she used it all up, it would only cover half of the first month. Sensing that it wasn't his place, Zero placed his hand on the doctor's shoulder to gain his attention.

"Let's give her some alone time doctor, she needs it." And with that, both men left the crying daughter with her near comatose mother. Leaving her with the thoughts of what she remembered Lelouch telling her earlier that day.

' _Think carefully about your choices, think about the outcomes of your actions and be prepared for the consequences of them, if you are not, they will crush you.'_

"What…what I've done! I didn't want this! I wanted you to be happy for God's sake! Why, why couldn't I see this? Please, Please Haha! Please you gotta wake, get better so we can be a family again, just like you wanted…so please…please wake up. I'm trying, I'm giving it my all to make a world where the Japanese can live a normal life again…but I want it share that world with you Haha, you are the only family I have left, so please-don't leave me." Kallen sobbed into the bed-sheets as she held on to her mother's hand for dear life, fearing if she let go, Kasumi will disappear for good.

And that was something she could never be able to live with.

 **Well…that got dark. Before you all try and lynch me let me explain, as we see in cannon, Refrain is a psychotropic which influences the brain but like with other drugs, one needs to up the dosage or daily usage to get the same effect as the body builds a resistance to it like it does with all foreign substances. We also see that Kallen mother (Which I named Kasumi since it's never revealed in the original two series what's her name) was very clumsy in cannon, the stepladder scene doesn't count as it was obvious it was tampered with. The point is that there are drugs in existence that when taken for long periods of time can lead to gradual loss of co-ordination and motor function as well as twitchy and scratching her neck like she was really nervous. Also Kasumi's condition is worse than cannon as Kallen found out in 2017 and moved in with her in 2018, here she continued to use the stuff till 2020 as even though she left the Stadtfeld household when Kallen moved out she had long since become an addict.  
Lelouch and Kallen's talk in the park was what she needed to hear as I believe the guy willing to die being hated by everyone(including his little sister) and go down in history as the worst human being to ever live for the sake of his little sister's dream would be able to understand and see the real reason her mother would stay around, also he didn't know that she was a number as Kallen for obvious reasons didn't tell him that part and he hasn't seen her file which states she of Japanese/Britannian blood. The quote his master told him is something similar to what Darth Kreia once said.  
Euphemia making the connection is also something she did in cannon but its' never revealed when, just that her talk with Lelouch during the hotel jacking made her suspicious as she had no real proof to it. She will need to do her own investigation into it to find out more about who Zero really is, maybe she'll find out before he ousts them from Japan.**

 **Anyway I will cover more of Kallen's family issues in the next chapter and the representative from Kyoto will make contact. Please like, review and follow the story so you are one of the first to find out about new chapters.**

 **Till next time.**


	16. Reveals and Revelations

**Well I loved the good reviews and PMs that came in about the last chapter, always good to see your opinions and support about my work, even if it's negative as hell but I press on. One of you, a reader by the name of duckstroyer pointed out that they could help Kallen's dear old mom as they have access to technology that would blow both Lloyd and Rakshata's minds, Lelouch does intend to but he has to be subtle about it till his plans allow for their grand reveal, after-all if he just wanted to take control and be forced to establish a dictatorship to keep civil order-he could have just blown all three of the major powers capitals to hell and announced himself supreme leader-this version of lulu is still very much the anti-hero but he isn't stupid plus unlike his cannon self, he has more than a near apathetic witch to bounce off his ideas and plans. I know C.C is a great character but there were times when having people like Kallen and Tohdoh as advisors would have saved him a lot of heartache and resources, case in point-how he planned to deal with the Special Administrative Zone of Japan.  
Sajuuk also pointed out that the Black Knights could have already established factories and other facilities on the Moon and Mars than relying on what they can produce on planet. I would like to point out that they do have some facilities off world but only on Mars as they already built their headquarters there, cloning is out for reason of basic morality as it has been pointed many times that clone army in cannon is essentially a slave force which has no retirement plan for clones who live long enough to retire and had no citizenship-therefore no voting power which the republic politicians frequently abused as we all know politicians love to avoid difficult issues or do what benefits them rather then what they were placed in office to do. Lelouch would never rely on an army of essentially slaves to fight for democracy and freedom, is just hypocritical.  
Lastly he hasn't issued blaster rifles because he wishes to keep the element of surprise for as long as he can and if his enemies got their hands on one, they'll start expected something or worse yet, reverse engineer them. His keeping his tech to knightmare and above size since then even if they get their hands on them, they won't have the supplies to either build them or the fuel/ammo to make them useful.**

 **Chapter 16: Reveals and Revelations**

 **27th August 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Narita Mountains:**

 **Japan Liberation Front Headquarters:**

"So is it true sir? That Kyoto will send the Guren Mk II to the Black Knights?" Ryoga Senba, the oldest member of the Four Holy Swords asked the group. He, along with the other members and their leader were holding a meeting in one of the chambers of their headquarters, news of Zero's war on crime had long since reached them and they had received word that Kyoto was awarding this drive.

"That's what was implied in their last transmission." The sole female member of most likely the most loyal to their master, Nagisa Chiba confirmed for them all.

"I can't believe these would be Robin Hoods are being given such a knightmare. That insulting." Shōgo Asahina said with a grimace as to him, this was slap in the face even after all the work they had put into the liberation of their land. It left a sour taste in his month.

"That it may be but they have been doing a lot of good work for the Japanese, public morale is rising again, the people are starting to believe again." Kosetsu Urabe intervened before they regressed into an argument which would get them no-where.

"But all they've been doing to small operations and police work, nothing to help against Cornelia at all." Nagisa Chiba added before a strong voice interrupted what would have been a very heated discussion.

"Enough, it is true that the Black Knights have an unusual preference to how they conduct their business but results have been produced nonetheless. Also from what our informants have been able to discover, Zero has somehow found a way to properly train and supply his troops." The leader of them and face of the JLF, Kyoshirou Tohdoh spoke to end the discussion on the topic, none present dare to voice any objection to him as he had long ago earned their respect and loyalty, to them the idea of speaking out against him was near blasphemous.

"So…what should we do?" Nagisa asked, Tohdoh looked like was going to answer but he was stopped by a new voice that entered the room.

"For now we shall continue to observe them, picking fights with other resistance groups is the first step to being truly defeated by the Britannian invaders." A man answered her question as he entered the room, he was clearly of Japanese descent but unlike those present he wasn't wearing an uniform and not only that but was quite pale and sickly looking, lastly he walked with the assistance of a cane.

"Prime Minster! You shouldn't be up, you need your rest." Urabe said as he and the rest of the swords bowed to their fallen nation's leader, Tohdoh didn't bow but made his way over and gave the man a stiff salute like a private would his Captain.

"Thank you for your concern but a leader's first duty is to his people, even if it cost me my life I would gladly die if it means my son's home would be free again." Genbu replied with a short cough into his hand.

"Be that as it may, I doubt my former pupil would like to see you in heaven so soon, please allow me to escort you back to your quarters." Tohdoh advised his friend and superior who just smiled back at him.

"I have a feeling that you won't back down, will you old friend?" Genbu Kururugi asked/said as he allowed the veteran to guide him back to his private quarters, no doubt his maids and nurses are going mad wondering where he slipped off to again, sick he may be but he knows how to avoid attention when he moves, such are the skills of an old politician such as himself.

"As you are a loyal servant to your country, it is my responsibility to ensure to live long enough to do so." Tohdoh shot back before he and the Prime Minister had left the room, leaving his mem to themselves.

"…How do you think he would have turned out?" Senba asked after a shot minute of silence.

"Well from what I recall he was as bull-headed as his father, he would be fighting to free Japan if he was still around." Asahina said as he remembered when he and the rest would accompany their leader to the Kururugi shrine whenever he taught the boy martial arts, there was even that young prince who would join in every now and then but wasn't as diligent when it come to the actual exercises.

"I hope he and his mother continue to look down and us, I have a feeling we'll need all the support we can muster soon." Urabe said as he had a dirty feeling in his stomach, last time he had such was the day before the actual invasion.

If only he knew what was coming.

(Meanwhile with Zero)

Lelouch as tired

Scratch that, he was exhausted

The reason?

Apparently, running an successful rebellion also entailed a shit load of paperwork and reports from the various cells, he did want them to report their actions and expenses to better ran things but this was…pure hell. Made him wonder how much worse it would be if he didn't hire all those office clerks upstairs to sort through the first wave of these things, he only ever got important ones and other noteworthy documents.

He had been in his personal office within an secure BK regional headquarters for the past 6 hours doing nothing but going over reports, he would have asked Suzaku and Nunnally for help but Suzaku was on the other side of the country running some operations there and Nunnally had gone over to the Medical corps to see how things were going…Speaking of the Medical call.

" **Nakamura?** " Zero asked over his desk phone as he sorted through another one of his cells financial reports of the last two months.

"… **Yes Zero-sama?** " A female voice replied over the comm, that voice being his personal secretary outside the door.

" **Bring me everything we have on a Miss Kallen Kōzuki if you will**." Zero asked of her as recalled how she fought both in Shinjuku and the raid he saw her in.

" **At once sir, I shall have everyone on your desk in the next 15 minutes**." The secretary replied as he could hear her typing away at her terminal to acquire the information he asked for.

" **Thank you**." Zero thanked her before he cut the line and went back to his work for a while before he leaned back into his seat and put his hands together with his fingers and thumbs being the only points of contact, looking every part that violent scheming terrorist Cornelia no doubt though he was.

'Let's see how we can put you to use Miss Kōzuki.' Zero thought to himself as he played all the scenarios in his mind where a pilot of her skill would be most useful to his plans and most devastating to his enemies.

Hey, he never claimed to be an angle and long ago chose to merely side with them.

(With Kallen)

"Thank you for looking after her doctor." Kallen thanked her mother's doctor as she prepared to leave her for the day, she had made it her mission to help her in any way she could, which meant visiting every day. Luckily, her CO had no problem with her doing such.

"It's no trouble young lady, honestly it's a blessing to be able to treat a patient again. I enjoy healing people." The old medic replied as he looked over some patient files.

"Is that why you joined the BK?" Kallen asked him, wishing to learn more about the person she was trusting her mother to.

"Yup, all the other groups are more concerned with fighter and forget to think of who treats them when they are eventually hurt, plus I get a pay-check which helps me to feed my family." He chuckled at her surprised face at his admission that money was part of his reason but she didn't call him out on it, honest good paying work was as rare for numbers as a double rainbow once Britannia rolls in.

"I can see why you would then, is that the same with the rest of them?" Kallen inquired further as she recalled seeing other doctors and nurses in this one facility.

"I would think so as before Zero, the only way to earn a steady income would be to work as an honorary and from what I heard from the few who joined, this is way better, you know, being treated like a human being." He elaborated as swallowing your pride for honest work was the only other option but most refused being treated like beasts of burden, it was only a select few who were lucky if they got employment from an employer that actually treated them right.

"Yeah, I can't say that I support the system but that's the only way most can feed their families, food isn't cheap, not even in the Ghettos." Kallen remarked as she could remember how some places with actual food would almost always charge unrealistic prices for their products, goes to show you that even in such times-greed was still very much present amongst the Japanese people.

"Alright young lady, see you again tomorrow?" the doctor asked/stated as he went to his desk to carry on what he was doing before she showed up.

"You know it." Kallen said as she stepped out of the room and made her way down the stairs towards the lobby, she didn't know how the BK were able to get their hands on such a well maintained building but she wasn't willing to look a gift horse in the mouth, as she got down the stairs she noticed someone waiting for her by the door. "Hmm?"

"Mam, you have been summoned by Zero and are expected to meet with him in 2 hours, a vehicle has already been prep to take you." The grunt informer her as she lead her out of the building towards a car waiting by the corner, leaving her to follow.

"Again, well I might be popular with him…I hope." Kallen joked to help herself keep calm, she has heard rumours of what happens to those who anger Zero with corrupt or incompetent behaviour, it was never pretty.

"I would think so, most of the time he spends with his personal forces, you might just become one of them sooner or later if you don't watch yourself." The grunt told her as they both got into the car and the driver pulled it off the curve and started driving, both of them didn't stick out too much as the driver and grunt were of European descent so she didn't have to worry about someone pulling them over.

"That doesn't sound so bad, any idea why he summoned me?" Kallen asked as they drove across the empty streets of the small town the BK had set up its medical station in, it was one of the few with minimal Britannian influence so it was decided that a BK sponsored medical centre for non-combatants could be built here. After-all, Cornelia couldn't attack a hospital with the wounds that Clovis caused still fresh in people's minds, not if she still wanted to keep her head.

"Not a clue, I wasn't deemed needing to know such." Her escort replied as she looked out the window. The conversation dies after that as both just resigned to keep to their own thoughts while looking out the window every now and then. They drove for a another 20 minutes before they reached a building she recognised as the regional office for the Black Knights, it was cleverly disguised as a ran down deli with entire place built under 4m worth of bomb resistant concreate and steel. They drove to a secret entrance and eventually reached the car-pool area. They exited the car and walked along the passageways and took an elevator down another 4 floors before they reached their destination.

"I brought her as requested." Her escort reported to a lady seated by a desk next to a door, just like the first time she had met the man in person, there were two of his special all-black troops standing guard at the door. The apparent secretary looked up from her desktop computer and regarded them both with an air of professionalism and tact she wasn't used to but nonetheless refused to flinch, after a moment she nodded and buzzed them in.

"Thank you, you may return to your regular duties now." The secretary told her as her escort nodded her head, saluted and walked off to do just that.

"He's waiting for you." The secretary told him, gaining her attention once more, Kallen quickly nodded her head to hide her embarrassment at day dreaming like that and walked into the office.

It was almost comical to see the great Zero grumbling as he went through his paper work like any other office worker, she supposed it came with running an resistance movement but nonetheless she found it amusing to watch.

"Sergeant Kallen Kōzuki, reporting in as requested." Kallen announced her presence as she saluted her seated superior officer who waved it off and gestured to the seat in front of his desk.

"Ha, yes. Thank you for coming on such short notice but I had a matter I liked to discuss with you…please, take a seat." Zero said as she quickly took his offer and sat down.

"Thank you sir. What did you wish to talk about?" Kallen asked him.

"Your mother's medical expenses, as you know, you can't cover them with what you are presently earning forever…however I may have found a solution to your dilemma." Zero told her, getting straight to the point and hitting a sore spot of her.

"A Loan?" Kallen asked with some hope, he wasn't wrong on her needing the money since she had no access to her father's funds.

"Not exactly, we're not a bank and doubt you would be able to pay it back. No, I will need you to take up an new assignment and deployment so I can justify increasing your salary to accommodate your new…expenses, if I just gave it to you, I'll be up to my neck with requests for hand-outs from other members who hear of this." Zero told her with as much of a straight face as a man in a mash could have.

"…That's understandable, seeing how if you deny them, people will start asking questions on how I got approval for such a 'hand-out'. We both don't need people thinking we have a secret relationship." Kallen answered after she thought about it for a moment and realized he couldn't just hand her the cash, it would be unfair to everyone else and he couldn't possible have the funds to increase everyone's salary.

"That's putting it mildly but you get the point…not the first part was my idea but the new deployment was from both your old drill sergeant and your CO. both believe that you have the potential to rise up faster in the ranks than most." Zero said as he showed her the letters of recommendation he has received from the two officers, getting her to blush in embarrassment at their praise of her skills and combat ability.

"Thank you for the compliment sir, so what's my new assignment?" Kallen asked him once she calmed herself down to look presentable, not that Zero seemed to care but she had standards.

"You are to befriend this young man." Zero said as he passed her a portfolio for her to read. "His name if Lelouch Lamperouge and is currently studying at Ashford University in the Tokyo settlement, our agents have found a suspicious money trial that leads back to him and his two associates. This money trial goes through not only criminal hands but the military as well. I need you to see what you can find out since we don't have any concreate evidence as of yet." Zero finished as she read through the detailed reports on her new target.

"You mean he could be involved in organised crime?" Kallen asked him, she wasn't very close to the young man but she wouldn't think someone who gave her such good advice and insight would involve themselves in such.

"To name a few things but that's why we need you to check it out, for all we know it could be nothing but we need to be certain. You leave for it on Monday." Zero responded.

"Understood sir…and my redeployment?" Kallen asked once she had accepted her new mission.

"We have recently got in touch with Kyoto and they are informed me that they are sending us supplies, one of them will be a state of the art 7th gen knightmare frame. You will be transferred from your old unit and placed under my direct command with this new machine becoming yours." Zero told her as he hander her another file to look over, which took a moment for her to process after hearing she was being all but promoted.

"A 7th gen? Like yours sir." Kallen asked, she couldn't wait to get into the cockpit of such a beast, only for Zero to laugh at her question.

"No exactly since my own model technically isn't even a knightmare frame but I can tell you that your new machine will make short work of even Gloucesters so not even Cornelia elite guard would have the technical advantage on you…they will have the experience though I advise you don't let this go to your head otherwise you may just lose it." Zero told her as he dismissed her and got back to work. Once she left his office. He continued doing his paperwork before he buzzed for his secretary.

"So how was it sir?" She asked as she came in and sat in the seat Kallen had vacated. Now that she was the centre of attention it was easier to see her features. Like Kallen as was a young, attractive blue eyed women but unlike her she was older appearing to be in her mid to late 20s. She also had shoulder length blonde hair. She wore the standard non-combat uniform of the Black Knights with the exception of being shorts and leggings rather than full pants.

"It went exactly as I thought it would. Moving her to my personal forces should prove to be…interesting." Zero replied to her as he put down his pen.

"Was that the only reason sir?" the now revealed Rio Nakamura asked with a sly grin, always eager for some gossip.

"My, my, someone getting curious." Zero shot back as he leaned back into his chair to appraise her.

"Well you did go out of your way to recruit that younger, hotter model over the older, gruffer ones you could have chosen from." Nakamura replied as she gestured to a pile of applicants for his personal forces on the desk, most of which were older grizzly men who had proved their metal in combat.

"They will be transferred to Lieutenant General S.K command while the rest will fall to Lieutenant General L.M. And as for your observation, I have an eye for quality and I can tell she will be great." Zero said with a passion that only he could bring.

"Great then, leave to those two geniuses to be attracted towards such a group if it had her in it then." Nakamura said as she thought back to her school days.

"You're referring to Okuda Minami and Takebayashi Kōtarō? Your former middle school classmates?" Zero stated.

"Who else then. It had been years since I last spoke with them. When the country fell, I was in Scotland." Nakamura told him as she was working as a diplomat when the war broke out and consequently wasn't in country when it all went to hell.

"Yes, I read your file, you only returned to Area 11 as a member of the Black Knights last year correct?" Zero said as he recalled how she used to work in their foreign branch in Spain before requesting to be transferred.

"Yeah and I've been busy for almost the entire time. Even them, I had no clue on how to find them." Nakamura said with a sad smile as she thought of how she lost contact with all her old classmates.

"Yes, war does have a war of separating friends. I'll see if I can't squeeze in some extra vacation days for you to go and see them some time soon. However there was something else I noticed about that Kallen girl you should be aware of." Zero replied as he handed her a file he had in his desk.

"Oh and what's that?" Nakamura said as she read through the beginning of the file.

"Her older brother, may he rest in peace, was a 3rd former exchange student at Kunugigaoka Junior High when you three were completing your 3rd years as well. From what I could dig up, he was in their rugby team while he studied there so it would make sense they would gravitate to a face they had seen before…must have been rough to loss him like that." Zero told her as she read the file he had gathered on this Naoto, she didn't know him herself but now that she thought about it, she did recall seeing him around campus, he was one of the few kids who actively talked to students in Class 3-E, didn't make him a lot of friends, at least that was what the rumours flying told but he was a good team player so it couldn't have been an issue.

"Yeah, I know the feeling. From what I know, that's how Sugaya kicked the bucket. His house was firebomb along with the rest of the neighbourhood during the war." Nakamura lamented as she recalled the baseball loving boy, he would have made it to the big leagues if things played out differently. "Alright, let's forget about all this doom and death and get back to work, I have the letter that Kyoto sent back sir so I'll leave you to it." She finished as she shook her head, placed a closed envelope on the desk and quickly walked out.

'She hurting on the inside but…she has more strength then she realizes, if I didn't know better-I'll say she was related to Milly.' Zero thought to himself as he cracked a small smile at the inner strength of will shown by his assistant before he picked up the envelope before opening it and reading the letter inside.

 _Zero_

 _First, let it be known that the Six Houses are fully appreciated of your war on the criminal element plaguing our lands and have put much thought into aiding you in this endeavour. Whenever our own agents picked up word or whisper of such activity, it shall be immediately handed over to your correspondent so they you may look over as you see fit._

 _For the matter towards your ammunition and medical supplies. The ammunitions shall be easier enough to acquire on your behalf and shipping it to you will be of hardship however some of the medical supplies you requested are of high quality and will take considerably longer to acquire and ship. We would be willing to hear you out on this matter as the health and freedom of the Japanese is something we take very seriously. We would also like to praise you for being able to manufacture and field your own Knightmare models as from what the evidence you presented to us has shown, they are very effective against our colonist adversaries and better built and armed then the Burai that we had unfortunately producing as a mass production model for a liberation movement._

 _Another issue we would like to rise of one of great importance, we have discussed your theories on Viceroy Cornelia had have agreed that her attack and subsequent destruction on the Japan Liberation Front in retaliation for the foolish actions of the late Kusakabe is an undeniable consequence we cannot ignore. We will soon make contact with the leadership of the Japan Liberation Front as to help them plan a sound defence of their holdings here in would of great aid if the Black Knights could send some of your own knightmares and troops to boast the defensive lines._

 _We await your response._

 _The Six House of Kyoto._

"So, they are in agreement with me about the attack on the JLF but disagreed with my foresight about the JLF not even surviving the coming storm. Cornelia brought a large part of her own forces to Area 11 to boost the numbers. Even when Clovis was in charge, they wouldn't have stood a chance in hell." Zero said aloud, slightly angered by the fact that Kyoto was too confident in the JLF despite their lack of results in the ten years the county has been occupied. 'For my plans for liberation to work I need Tohdoh and his swords, it will also help to find out just who runs the JLF since neither myself or the authorities have a clue as to who it is.' Zero thought to himself as he picked up his phone to call Nakamura to get him a direct line to Kyoto, whether or not they were actually available was not his concern at the moment.

He had a battle to plan out.

 **27** **th** **August 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Sakuradite mines:**

"Zero, to what do we owe this rather unexpected call?" Kirihara asked as he and the rest had been assembled for an emergency call from Zero. Of course they has taken precautions to ensure the call couldn't be tracked back to them and were making use of curtains and voice changers to hide their identities.

" **I'll be frank, your wrong about your assessment**." Zero told them as he along with S.K were on screen, S.K on the other side of the monitor as he wasn't in the same place as Zero.

"On what?" One of the six houses asked with a sneer.

" **The fact you believe that the JLF can survive a confrontation with Viceroy Cornelia with the meagre resources they have**." S.K elaborated when he saw that Zero wasn't going to do such.

"They are proud sons and daughters of Japan who have fought for the last 1o years! Show some respect." Another member told them.

" **This isn't a lack of respect, far from it but they have no noteworthy achievements to their names and I will call it as such. Besides, we all know that they are based in Narita, it's an open secret at this point which means that even if they somehow survive the first wave, Cornelia can just send it more till they're all dead or bomb the place to hell**." S.K replied as he threw out the facts of the case for them.

" **There's also the fact that the Knight of Nine will most likely be present as well. Against her, only Tohdoh and maybe his personal swords would be of any match. That alone will rob the JLF of their aces but leaving Cornelia and her own personal knights in play**." Zero added as he presented the unknown factor as a Knight of Round on the battlefield normally spelt death for the empire's enemies. " **As you can imagine, they are outgunned, outnumbered and very much out skilled since Cornelia commands some of the, if not the best ground troops the Britannians have to offer. You know this as she conquered her way through North Africa so fast, Alexander the Great would have been envious**." Zero continued after he let the facts sink in.

"As much as I hate to admit, they are right." Kaguya spoke for the first time in the meeting.

"What?" Kirihara asked, he wished to see where she was going with this.

"The JLF may be armed with a substantial amount of knightmares but Burai with rookie pilots against Sunderlands with seasoned veterans as pilots? Just from that alone, the JLF will suffer mass casualties in the knightmare corp, never mind the fact most of them haven't seen a pitch battle in years, only having small raids under their belts…as Zero and his commander have already said. It would be a bloodbath." Kaguya reminded them since it had become painfully obvious that Burais were no match for Sunderlands with competent pilots.

" **Not if we're there**." Zero spoke, gaining their attention again.

"How so, will you join the battle personally?" Kirihara asked of him.

" **Why of course, the fall of the JLF would be the worst thing for morale right now and we can't exactly sit by while our fellow resistance group is destroyed by the colonist now can we?** " Zero replied as if offended they thought he wouldn't take to the field himself.

"But how would you defeat Cornelia where the JLF cannot?" One of the houses asked them, not at all impressed by their arrogance at thinking they could do it.

" **That all depends on what you call victory and defeat. For Cornelia, she wished to crush the JLF and kill off their leaders and public faces, case in point Tohdoh. For the JLF, victory would be killing her and routing her forces**." S.K said as he listed how each side views victory to be totally different goals that sound similar.

"One of these we cannot allow to happen while the other would be…difficult under the circumstances. The Black Knights don't really have that many numbers to work with but we can bleed Cornelia of men and resources with a little trick that I'm been thinking of…" Zero said as he went on to explain his plan to the houses of Kyoto, drawing grasps, awes and smirks near the end as they listened in to what may be the most impossible sounding strategy they had ever heard.

'Oh this will truly be a battle to remember.' Kaguya thought to herself as she listened to the detail Zero have put into this…ingenious plan of his.

And to think, this is just something off the top of his head.

 **29** **th** **August 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Secret Black Knight warehouse facility:**

"So this is what Kyoto sent us right?" A man by the name of Lockon Stratos, longest serving member of the Zero Squad asked his comrades as he along with them stood in front of the freshly delivered Guren Mk 2. Currently they were inside one of Zero's many secret storage facilities.

"Yes my friend, it is." Alleujah Haptism, another senior member confirmed as they all stood in awe at

"A completely made Japanese model. The Guren Mk 2." Kallen muttered to herself in sheer amazement that not only was she standing amongst Zero's top guns but she would receive this beauty of a knightmare.

"Yep, sadly for you guys, it falls to this little lady. After all, she the chosen pilot." The only other female member of the squad said, a Chinese women by the name of Wang Liu Mei.

"That sucks, I would have loved to tear the brits a new one with it." Lockon said to himself, something which Kallen caught.

"Can't be helped, according to the reports, I have the highest efficiency rating." Kallen boasted with a puff out chest, taking pride in the fact she outperformed them all.

"Yeah by like 2%." Lockon muttered.

"Still 2% higher than yours. Besides, we all still get out CGUEs, remember?" Tieria Erde shot him down, like Kallen he was a relatively new member to the team but he carried himself in a much more detached and professional way than she did.

"That's correct and I hear Zero brought in something to really make them shine." Liu Mei said as she thought back to the report she read.

"What's that?" Alleujah asked, and received an answer from an unexpected source.

"I simply brought with me the finished products." Zero said as he stepped into the light from the shadow he was in, catching them all by surprise as he always did.

"Sir!" they all yelled as they saluted their leader who saluted them back in kind.

"At ease, as I was saying, I brought the finished products." Zero continued as he waved their attention towards the row of freshly assembled knightmares. These were different from the ones used by the regular forces. They looked a bit slimmer, had a slightly different and smaller designed head piece and they also stood a bit taller than the average GINN fielded by the Black Knights.

"But I thought they were finished sir." Alleujah asked, till Zero pointed to their backs which had strange twin…thrusters attached to them?

"They are however, like my own machine which has been replaced with the finished product, they were designed to outmatch all others in the field in every way. My men, they were designed to fly." Zero announced with flair, stunning them at the fact they would be the first to make use of flying knightmares.

"Fly sir, but how?" Tieria had to know, he would accept such from the empire but it seems their R&D branch was worth every penny and more.

"As you all already know, our specially designed equipment and vehicles it state of the art. The development branch was actually angry with me for delaying their use up till now but we didn't need to scare the colonist too much. In time all models will be equipped with their own flight packs but for now, only those of the Zero squad will possess such." Zero elaborated for them all before a smirk broke across the face of Liu Mei.

"Oh I have a feeling the viceroy is in for a rude awakening, isn't she." Liu Mei asked/stated with a chuckle at the thought of laying the Goddess of victory low like any other mortal.

"That is correct my fair maiden. We will be leaving for Narita next weekend, we will use this weekend to ship supplies there in secret. We don't need to alert the colonist to our future presence." Zero finished as he left them to their own devices for the rest of the night, each of them using the time to familiarize themselves with their respective knightmares.

 **3** **rd** **September 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Lamperouge Residence:**

"So that's what you told her? Is it?" Reyla asked her lover as she and Lelouch stood in the pool, him helping the 25 week pregnant woman as she did some aerobic exercises. It was late afternoon of the day before they would ship out for Narita and they all decided to hand around their heated pool. Nunnally was paddling along on the other side of it while Suzaku sat on a lawn chair next to it, having finished having his fun in the water.

"Yes, she needs a reason to stick around and it's a perfect way for me to keep an eye of her progress, both on and off the battlefield." Lelouch responded as she hugged her from behind, resting one hand on her ever growing belly.

"And she just happens to be a pretty young lady?" Reyla teased.

"Do I look a fool? I'm all but married already with a child on the way." Lelouch actually had the balls to look offended by that, even if they all knew he was just going along with it.

"Nice to see you can keep it in your pants." Suzaku added from his seat with a chuckle.

"Oh stuff it, unlike my bastard of a father, I know the meaning of faithfulness." Lelouch shot back with a pout and glare.

"Joking aside, how are things going?" Nunnally asked, breaking the mood.

"We've moved just about everything into position, the knightmares and actual troops will get there just before the operation starts." Lelouch told her.

"And the deliveries?" Suzaku asked, picking up a book to read.

"The JLF received the 5 GINNs as we planned, if all goes well and they actually listened to the instructions they came with, Tohdoh and his personal squad will use them instead of those crappy Burais." Lelouch responded as he just got the report that morning.

"The excavators also arrived today and from what the JLF have passed on, they have been placed into position for us. It'll save time if we don't have to actually bring and place them ourselves." Nunnally added as she got out of the pool and took a towel to dry off.

"There's also the matter of the Knight of Nine being all but assured to be present, she's an unknown in this." Suzaku said as he turned the page.

"Which is way you will lead a separate assault on Imperial Air force airstrip in Narita. When you take it out of the equation, air superiority will fall to us and it'll go a long way in securing the skies over central Japan." Lelouch smoothly responded as he rested his chin on Reyla's left shoulder.

"Then the stage is set in our favour?" Nunnally said a she looked towards the slowly setting sunset, seemingly seeing the future.

"As much as it can be at this point, dear sister. Tomorrow we will put our forces through a trial of fire and iron. It's up to them if they can stomach the violence and succeed." Lelouch said as his eyes glowed purple as he felt his connection to the force grow anxious for the coming battle.

 **And the prelude to Narita is done. I hope I was able to capture the characters nicely with this one and open new doors that will help branch this from cannon.** **As you all read, the leader of the JLF is in fact Genbu which in this timeline is still alive, ill but alive. So you can imagine, that will eventually lead to a tearful and rather eventual reunion between father and son but that's down the line.  
Another issue I would like to rise is an apology, as in earlier chapters, I stated that the Chinese Federation couldn't possible have the largest population but recently I used my old middle school Atlas to calculate a more accurate population numbers per nation and or fraction…and the federation was calculated to have a population number of 4 277 600 000, the closest number to that would be the E.U with a number of only 1 403 900 000, which means that Federation as a number over 3 times greater than its 2** **nd** **place. So for those who took offense to my incorrect statement, I apologise.  
The last thing I want to mention is that V.V won't play much a role till later one as he doesn't strike me as someone who attacks early one, especially when they don't have much information on the target (Zero) other then what they seen and what they believe about him, he has no reason to suspect Lelouch or Nunnally as they dropped off the radar years ago so he won't move out of some lingering hate for Marianne till/if he does make the connection.**

 **Story info:**

 **GINN**

 **Technical Specifications**

 **Model Number : ZGMF-1017**

 **Unit Type: Mass Produced**

 **Overall Height: 5.11m**

 **Gross Weight: 8.12 Metric Tons**

 **Power Source: MK IV ion Engine, Rhydonium Energy Cell**

 **Armour Materials: Classified Tungsten Composite Alloy**

 **Manufacturer: Atlas R.O.A.D.S Institute(Black Knights Research and Development Branch)**

 **Operators: Black Knights; United States of Japan; Red Rebellion Forces; United Chinese forces**

 **KMF Generation: Mark V**

 **Role: Multi-Purpose; Anti Knightmare; Anti-Tank;**

 **Developed From: YMF-01B Proto GINN; RPI-13 Sunderland**

 **Developed Into: ZGMF-515 CGUE; AMF-101 DINN**

 **Variants: ZGMF-1017 GINN Ceremonial Decoration Type; ZGMF-1017 GINN Insurgent Type; ZGMF-1017M GINN High Manoeuvre Type; ZGMF-LRR704B GINN Long Range Reconnaissance Type; ZGMF/TAR-X1 GINN Tactical Air Reconnaissance Type**

 **Equipment**

 **Standard: Cockpit Ejection System; Factsphere Sensor; Landspinner Propulsion System; I.F.F Transponder System; Unit Transponder System; Ion Engine Flight Pack; Class-4 Shield Generation system; Cockpit Life Support System which can keep pilot alive for 36 hours(1 ½ Days); Self-Destruct Feature; Field Survival kit with pistol(3 magazines) and assault rifle(2 magazines)**

 **Armaments**

 **Fixed: 2x Wrist-Mounted Slash Harkens; 1x Torso-mounted 15mm Anti Material Machine Gun**

 **Optional: MMI-M8A3 55mm Assault Rifle; MA-M3 Heavy Vibro Blade; MMI-M8A4 75mm Heavy Assault Rifle; 2 × M68 "Pardus" 45mm 3-barrel Short-range Guided Missile Launcher; 2 × M66 "Canus" 85mm Short-range Guided Missile Launcher; 4 × 210 mm Missile pack (2 per launcher); 4 × 145mm Small Missile (2 per launcher); M69 "Barrus Kai" 145mm Heavy Blaster Cannon; M68 "Cattus" 450mm Recoiless Rifle; 84mm Amour piercing High Explosive Sniper Rifle**

 _ **The ZGMF-1017 GINN is the first true mass-produced general purpose knightmare frame produced and used exclusively by the Black Knights and their allies. The Mark V series Knightmare Frame was developed during the ten years that Lelouch Lamperouge; Nunnally vi Britannia and Suzaku Kururugi were off world training in their force abilities by using data acquired from watching how Britannian made models adapted to the new warfare.**_

 _ **Design and Specifications**_

 _ **The GINN is a durable, reliable and multi-purpose knightmare which serves as the backbone unit for all Black Knight Knightmare squads till its eventual replacement by more updated and superior models. The model was designed to stand on par with the standard Sunderland used by the Holy Britannian Empire-which for the longest time was the premiere knightmare manufacturing nation but to outperform said model in every way, case in point-the standard flight system all models are equipped with allow the model to take to the skies whereas the standard Sunderland and Gloucester could not, another improvement of the user interface which makes piloting the unit easier and more fluid allowing the pilot to respond better to combat situations and with an exceptional pilot, allow it to stand up to 7th gen machines fielded by three world powers. Lastly the unit is fitted with a class 4 shielding unit which grants the unit the equivalent armour protection of a unit with 6 times the amount of armour, making it next to impossible for conventional knightmare based weapons to deal any significant damage.**_

 _ **It is designated as a Zero Gravity Manoeuvre Fighter by the BK as it was originally intended to be a space superiority model, thus the designation "ZGMF". It has two thruster-like "wings" on its back which allow the unit flight capabilites, a fin-shaped sensor array on its head.**_

 **CGUE**

 **Technical Specifications**

 **Model Number : ZGMF-515**

 **Unit Type: High Performance General-Purpose Commander Class Unit**

 **Overall Height: 5.36m**

 **Gross Weight: 8.18 Metric Tons**

 **Power Source: MK V ion Engine, Rhydonium Energy Cell**

 **Armour Materials: Classified Tungsten Composite Alloy**

 **Manufacturer: Atlas R.O.A.D.S Institute(Black Knights Research and Development Branch)**

 **Operators: Black Knights; United States of Japan; Red Rebellion Forces; United Chinese forces**

 **KMF Generation: Mark V**

 **Role: Multi-Purpose; Anti Knightmare; Anti-Tank;**

 **Developed From: ZGMF-1017 GINN**

 **Developed Into: AMF-101 DINN: ZGMF-600 GuAIZ**

 **Variants: ZGMF-515 CGUE Ceremonial Decoration Type**

 **Equipment**

 **Standard: Cockpit Ejection System; Factsphere Sensor; Landspinner Propulsion System; I.F.F Transponder System; Unit Transponder System; Ion Engine Flight Pack; Class-4 Shield Generation system; Cockpit Life Support System which can keep pilot alive for 42 hours(1 3/4 Days); Self-Destruct Feature; Field Survival kit with pistol(5 magazines) and Shotgun(21 rounds)**

 **Armaments**

 **Fixed: 2x Wrist-Mounted Slash Harkens; 1x Torso-mounted 15mm Anti Material Machine Gun**

 **Optional: MA-M4A Heavy Vibro Blade; MMI-M7S 60mm Heavy Assault Machine Gun; M7070 30mm Vulcan System Shield**

 _ **The ZGMF-515 CGUE is the standard commander's and commando unit knightmare frame, much as the Gloucester is the superior knightmare when paired against the Sunderland, the CGUE is the better model between itself and the GINN. Having been built with a better OS, stronger servo motors in the limbs and more sophisticated scanning device for an factsphere, the model is both faster and more nimble than its predecessor.**_

 _ **Design and Specifications**_

 _ **The CGUE is a successor to the GINN in terms of performance and served as the Black Knight Knightmare of choice for squad and platoon commanders. The model was designed to surpass the GINN in every field except firepower. The flight pack is also more powerful and refined and provides more thirst and 3d movement control, allowinf got skilled pilots to move around more fluidly and remain nimble but deadly in combat, like the GINN, It is designated as a Zero Gravity Manoeuvre Fighter by the BK as it was originally intended to be a space superiority model, thus the designation "ZGMF".**_


	17. Start of the Show

**Well I finally started working on this the other day and decided that I needed to finish it as soon as I could. As we all left off last chapter, the battle of Narita will begin in this chapter but won't end in it as there will be much more added to it which will continue the trend of the deviation from cannon. We will get to see Kallen take charge in her signature Guren, all three of the lost children take the field in their respective roles and as far as I know, this will be the first time the battle of Narita is written with both Suzaku and Lelouch on the same side so they're gonna rise some hell like the boys they are. Lastly, the fact that characters from the Gundam 00 storyline are here doesn't mean that they will have Gundams, they are just good pilots and I thought that Lelouch needed people of their skills loyal to him first since Tohdoh has the Holy swords and Cornelia had Dalton and his sons along with Guilford.**

 **Chapter 17: Start of the Show**

 **4** **th** **September 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Narita Mountains:**

"Sector five, nothing to report….right the next scheduled report will be in two hours." One of the JLF guardsmen spoke over the radio with someone before he hang up the line and went back to the table as the other one stood by the window, looking over at the snow covered mountains.

"Normally I wouldn't be worried with the high command is sure Cornelia is coming." The second person stated as he looked out for any trouble. Ever since the JLF announced that Cornelia was bringing the fight to them, almost everyone had been on edge. It didn't take much brain cells to know that this would be a fight for their survival that needed them all at their most attentive.

"Yeah but didn't the Black Knights send us those custom Knightmares of Tohdoh and the Holy Swords to use?" the first one asked as he went over to the table to take sip of his warm but tasteless tea to help warm him up.

"I don't think that five Knightmares is going to be enough." The second one stated as he turned to face his comrade only to freeze as he saw they weren't alone as the front door just opened and the most unexpected person walked right on in.

"And you would be right on that account." Zero announced as he walked right up to their table, undisturbed by the two men standing up and drawing their weapons.

"Zero!"

"How the hell did you get here without being spotted?"

"That's for me to know and you to never hear about. Contact your high command and inform them that the Black Knights are getting into positions as we speak. We'll be ready in 20 minutes." Zero ordered them as if there were his men to command as he walked out of the small hut but before he left he did dropped something they were forced to listen to. "Code phrase: Suzuki dream." He finished as he left out, the two men stood still for a moment or two as they tried to process just what happened before they jumped to the radio and called up the main base, even if they didn't like or obey the commands of someone else, they knew that if he knew that code phrase that he was to be taken seriously.

(With the main Black Knight force)

" **Captain, we're good to go**." Zero relayed as he sat in the open cockpit of his newly delivered Nightmare Tarantula, an upgrade from the Sino Tarantula he used during the whole Shinjuku incident.

" **Copy that Zero, all the excavators are in position, we're finishing the final touches now**." Captain Warwick replied as he led the last of the Black Knights into their encampment on the summit of the mountain.

" **Alright but remember, we're on a time limit here."** Zero stated as his own personal squad arrived in their custom knightmares, the Guren somewhat blending in as though it was hunched slightly, the mon-eyed black and purple knightmares he came went didn't look like the norm either.

" **Aren't we always?** " Captain Warwick said with a chuckle as he cut the line so they could both focus on their jobs.

"I've smashed Clovis and now today, today I hand you your first defeat Cornelia." Zero said to himself as he got lost in thought as he pictured all the ways the battle could go and all the contingencies he, Leila and Suzaku can came up with over the past couple weeks. He knew that a knight of round was most certainly going to be present for this, the only member who got in through sheer killer instinct and lack of tactical and strategic forethought was Bradley and he already had a plan to deal with him, he was pulled from his thoughts as he heard commotion outside his now closed cockpit and looked through one of the monitors to see what the noise was about. "Hmm?" Zero said as he took in the image and nearly fell over in shock.

What the Hell was C.C doing here?!

(With Cornelia and her command staff)

"We're certain that the Japan Liberation Front headquarters are in this area." Dalton explained as he stood over an operation screen. He along with four other command staff were present as well as the Viceroy, Sub viceroy and the Knight of Nine. "We already split four battalions into seven units and hidden them in the vicinity, we only await the Viceroy's signal where we'll surround and destroy them." He finished as he displayed the positions of their hidden forces in and around the area, awaiting their orders.

"And are you confident that the enemy won't show up outside the encirclement line?" Euphemia inquired as them as she looked over the map and saw next to no troops directed towards their rear.

"Do you mean Zero and his Black Knights?" Cornelia asked while seated on the commander's throne with her loyal knight, Guilford by her side.

"Have no fear about that, as the operation begins, we'll be blocking all routes leading her." Dalton reported as turned to face the younger of the two princesses.

"Don't be so sure, Zero has proven that he is good at moving without being seen and leaving before he can be caught. There's also the issue with what the Sub Viceroy describe about him we need to be cautious about this Viceroy." Nonette advised as she looked out the window at the countryside, her back turned to them as she thought about the ways this could go wrong for them.

"Is that not why you insisted to accompany us here and take command of the reserve units?" Cornelia asked/stated of her old friend as she didn't doubt her but believed that there was little reason for Zero to show up here of all places, he and his band of terrorists had limited themselves to police work and small time raid on imperial outposts in the countryside mostly.

"Don't be so sure of you victory that you give him the edge Viceroy, it will be your undoing." Nonette said as she turned to face them, her usual smirk gone and replaced with a veteran frown and cool expression.

"I'll keep that in mind but as far as we know, the Japan Liberation Front and Black Knights are not allied together so what would he gain from appearing in the first place?" Cornelia asked her to which the answer wasn't what she was expected as Nonette just turned to face the windows again before replying.

"That's what scares me, I don't know."

(Meanwhile at Ashford)

"What, you want to get to know him better? You know that he's just as busy with his studies as the rest of us right? What do the two of you even have in common besides you love for reading?" Milly asked Nina as they sat together in the student council meeting room. It was a Saturday and there wasn't any lectures that day so Milly and Nina had opted to spend the day on campus. Lelouch and Nunnally had a family camp thing they set up, Suzaku was visiting relatives in northern Area 11 and Rivalz was working so it was just them.

"Yes but, I-I never really got to thank him for what he did. Lelouch saved me and didn't ask for anything in return, there has to be something I can do." Nina said shyly as she looked down at her book, she had tried to get the boy to talk to her but he always seemed busy or was otherwise engaged. She thought she had a chance the other day but Shirley broke down when she remembered it was father's birthday and that he was dead so Lelouch spent the whole week helping her cope along with Reyla.

"Hmmm, well I suppose that I could speak with him and see if he doesn't have a free day but don't get your hopes up, he's been trying to break that 'bad-boy' image the lecturers are sure he is." Milly stated as she found it funny that he actually had to pay extra attention in class to at least seemed interested and avoid being called the 'rebel'. If only those teachers know that he was in fact a rebel.

(Back with Zero)

"C.C, how the hell did you get here?" Zero questioned as he got out from his machine to approach the green haired immortal. She stood by the edge overlooking the steep drop while the rest of the zero squad had their weapons trained her, people like Kallen and Lockon were outside their machines and had their small arms trained on her.

"I got bored and heard about your little plan and thought it would be entertaining." C.C stated without turning to face him.

"That didn't answer my question." Zero responded as he walked up till only about a few feet separated them.

"I wasn't trying to." Was C.C snarky reply.

"Damn witch." Zero muttered as he shook his head in annoyance. "Lower your weapons, I doubt that you'll do much more than waste ammo anyway." Zero ordered as he turned to Lockon as he said the last part.

"Are you sure sir?" Kallen asked, you wouldn't have known it was her as she and the rest of them had been wearing their full pilot's suits with helmets included.

"I'm very much capable of taking care of myself Q1 but I appreciate the concern." Zero stated as he walked towards her and places a hand on her shoulder. "Why don't you all mount up, I'll meet you at the rendezvous point." He finished as he gave them an order, they didn't like it but they obeyed none the less.

Once they all boarded their machines and left, it was quiet for a while as Zero didn't say a word as he waited for this rather odd woman to say her piece, at least she was smart enough to not call him by name. "I'm been wondering about something Lelouch, why are you Lelouch."

"I don't have the patience to discuss philosophy with you right now, couldn't this wait?" Zero asked as he turned to walk away but her next sentence caught him.

"You changed you family surname with Lamperouge but kept the name you were given at birth. How sentimental. You can't let go of the past." C.C stated as if it was matter of fact she didn't like.

"'Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it' they say so no I don't let things go too easily but you on the other hand, C.C. swings to the other extreme. That's not a human name." Zero shot back as he had been wondering about that for a while, it didn't sound like any alien name he was familiar with as when he approached his masters about the issue, even they were stumped and concluded she choose it for some unknown reason.

"Lelouch, do you know snow is white?" C.C asked as she turned to look at him, meeting his gaze as had turned his head to meet her as well. "It's white because it's forgotten what colour it should be." She finished with a forlorn smile.

"Well that sure is one way to look at it but tend to think its white for another reason. I believe that's white because it hasn't yet been tainted by this world, only the flakes onto of the pile stay pure while those at the bottom don't" Zero counted as he turned to face her fully.

"My, I didn't take you to be religious." C.C teased as that was the kind of stuff she would expect from the cynical boy in front of her, if sounds like his father but she knew he would sooner rink poison then admit that.

"My faith isn't something you would understand, at least." Zero said as he grabbed the harness to pull himself into his cockpit. "Not yet anyway." He said to himself as he powered up his Nightmare and headed to where he was to meet with his squad.

(With Cornelia on-board the G1)

" **Mam, all units are in position**." The officer reported as Cornelia sat inside the cockpit of her custom Gloucester, ready for launch. It had been some time since they got into positon and she knew her men were getting anxious for battle.

" **Understood, Euphemia will provide logistical support from the G1 as planned. Have her command the medical group**." Cornelia ordered smoothly.

" **Yes you highness**." The officer replied as they signed off, right after they did so another com link opened up.

" **Princess Cornelia**." Guilford stated.

" **Guilford let me guess, this is about Euphemia isn't it?** " Cornelia stated as she figured he didn't like this anymore than she did.

" **Yes, she really should be back in a government agency not-** " Guilford begun but couldn't place his concerns into works, leaving his princess to guess what he worried about.

" **But she's being unusual stubborn about this. She told me that she wanted to see actually combat for herself and Nonette supported it so there was nothing I could do**." Cornelia told him as she would have forbid it if she could but with a Knight of Round backing her little sister, there was little she could do to oppose without good reason. Meanwhile as they were having this conversation, Euphemia was still in the G1 discussing matters with the officers Cornelia left behind to command and oversee the operation.

"Hmm, which unit is that one? The one holding to the rear?" Euphemia asked as she noticed that there was a single unit stationed by itself near the rear.

"The reserve force with the eleven pilot." One of the officered replied as he took time to see which unit she was talking about.

"That's the Lancelot?" the sub viceroy asked, she didn't see the sense in keeping their best knightmare stashed away like that, Cornelia should nearly stop underestimating her foes.

"As a rule, numbers aren't allowed to operate knightmares but that particular unit is an exception. The second prince is the patron of that unit, we have no say over their personnel selection. Also Dame Enneagram has taken them under her command so they can do what they please." Another officer explained as they weren't too keen on having an eleven pilot their prototype next gen knightmare but they didn't have any say in the issue so they would have to suck it up.

(With the Black Knights)

"So the day has finally came, hasn't it?" Warwick stated as stood alongside Zero as they watched the encampment of Black Knights buzz with activity. The excavators were mostly done with a few still pumping the last of the dirt and rock.

"Yes Captain, this will be the first we meet her forces in real combat." Zero stated as they watched as the infantry loaded up and checked their firearms, rockets were loaded in their launchers and the mortar crews departing the camp for their assigned position in case they needed fire support.

"Are you sure? You and I both know most of our forces are green as grass." Warwick asked as he was feeling a bit nervous about this. He knew that some of the people he was looking at right now would not return from this.

"Our opponent may be Cornelia but the time for training and hiding has come to an end, I have faith that they will perform well this day." Zero said as he eased the man worries as they watched a few of the newly delivered tanks Zero's secret R&D section had built drove off through a pre-selected path to block off some of the exit paths out of the mountain range.

"Then all we can do is lead them to the best of our ability." Warwick stated as she saluted his superior and left for get to his station.

They were in for a real fight, that's for sure.

(With Cornelia)

" **Viceroy, its time**." Dalton said over the radio as Cornelia thumbed the controls, ready for battle.

" **Right, commence operation!** " She gave the orders as she launched out of the G1 at full speed.

"You the Japan Liberation Front." Cornelia started as all the hidden units became active. "You that time has left behind." She continued as Sunderlands raced out of the train cars which had been parked by the edge of the battlefield. "You who have forgotten basic human decency." She went on as VTOLs dropped in even more knightmares. "You and your dream of a bygone golden age shall fall and rot to nothingness." She finished as she lead her force up into the mountains to crash the JLF.

(In the central operations room of the JLF)

"We're under enemy attack?" Genbu asked as looked over the screens and saw nothing but enemy dots coming in from all directions.

"Yes sir, the Britannian forces have completely surrounded the Narita Mountains. We've counted over 120 units." The officer reported as she stood saluting him.

"So, they finally made their move have they?" Genbu mused to himself as he didn't want to believe the report they had gotten from Kyoto but luckily he was sensible enough to have his troops ready for it just in case.

"Sir, what are your orders?" The officer asked crisply.

"Well Kyoto assured us that we could trust them so for now we're follow the plan Zero drew up, have our troops deploy as planned, remember leave the least amount of troops guarding the main entrance and have the bulk of them lead them into the trap." Genbu ordered as he took the commander's seat and gazed at the operational screen on the wall in front of him.

"Yes sir, shall he have Tohdoh and the four holy swords launch as well?" One of his officers asked.

"No, we're hold them in reserve till we see how Cornelia plans on fighting us." Genbu stated as he denied the request. 'You better be right about this Zero, I already had to see Japan burn once…I don't think I could stand to see it burn again.' He thought to himself as he gripped at his hand.

(With Zero)

"So…they have begun." Zero muttered as he powered-up his machine and prepared for battle, they had finished the set-up and now all that remained was for their prey to trigger the trap.

(With Genbu)

"Sir, it's just as we feared, we're completely surrounded the left over reserves we stationed were captured all at once." One of the officers reported.

"Prime Minister, we've received a message from Cornelia's forces demanding we surrender." Another asked as they were more than a bit scared.

"Imbecile, you should have known death was a possible outcome when you joined, we already knew she would do that. Send out the first wave to engage the enemy to gauge their strength and have the second wave dig in and provide cover fire and to hamper the enemy movements." Genbu admonished them as he turned to another officer. "Remember to lure then into the trap we set up, that will show them Japan isn't dead yet."

"Yes sir!" they all replied as they continued onwards with their tasks.

(Meanwhile in the G1)

"We believe that enemy's main base is located in the mountains here but we haven't pinpointed it yet." One of the officers explained to Euphemia as they looked over the battle plan. "However until we collect a list of their collaborators, we can't burn down everything with our aerial bombing." He finished as you would think such a large target would warrant a bombing raid rather than a land based assault.

"The enemy has yet to engage our encirclement but they will try to break through at same point. From there we'll be able to ascertain where their base is." Another explained the plan for finding the main entrance so that they could storm the place and kill or capture the terrorists in one instance.

"Over forces are divided into four fronts, the units lead by General Dalton here," The third one started as he pointed at the furthest right troop formation. "General Alex here," he continued as he pointed at the central formation. "Viceroy Cornelia here and Dame Enneagram here, holding up the viceroy's rear. As for our flanking forces…" he continued as he pointed to the furthest left troop formation and the smaller unit to the rear of that. He would have went on but the screen started to go hazy and alarms went off.

"Its enemy ECM." One of the officers realized rather quickly which meant the enemy was about to attack.

(With Dalton)

" **The Main enemy force should be coming out any time now, we're switching to ECCM mode, link up in channel Alpha-4**." Dalton stated over the radio with a smirk. " **The enemy, what are we calling them again?** " he asked, eager to get to the actual fighting.

" **Burais sir**." One of his men replied.

" **Right, their rather like pseudo Glasgows so watch out for them**." Dalton advised with a small chuckle as he knew next to no-on under his command would even be damaged by such weak threats, at best they would need minor maintenance afterwards.

" **Yes, my lord**." Another one of them replied as they readied themselves for battle.

(With Cornelia)

Cornelia had been racing along for some time now but she and the rest of her men hadn't encountered a single enemy unit which both confused and vexed her she this wasn't something she was used to as most would charge straight at her once they realized they couldn't hide. Her luck however would change as some of the trees in the distance moved apart and from the opening, an elevator carrying three green burai's would pop up. "How clever, they turned this whole mountain into a fortress." She said to herself with a smirk, slightly impressed that they were able to do so but after seeing how Clovis ran the region, it wasn't anything noteworthy as he paid next to no attention on cracking down on rebels and spent most of his time building/funding public works for the Britannian colonists which although help keep the commoners happy, didn't solve the problem.

" **Your highness, please fall back**." Guilford advised as he rode alongside her.

" **Guilford, don't treat me like another one of your women**." Cornelia shot back and with a gleam in her eyes, she rocketed forward to meet the threat.

" **Princess Cornelia**." Guildford tried to call to her but she wasn't listening to him anymore.

" **It's Cornelia!** " One of them called out as they turned to face her.

" **Don't panic, weapons free! Take her out!** " the commanding officer of the trio ordered as they all fired on her but with skills homed over years of fighting and experiences earned in numerous theatres of war, Cornelia dodged their fire and rushed right into them.

" **Insolent worms!** " She called out as she bashed them all aside with a wave of her lance before she drove it into the cockpit of one of them as the pilot inside screamed as they breathed their last, as the totalled machine, blew up she stabbed another which can fallen down through the chest to which it caused the machine to explode. Before the smoke could clear from her first two kills of the day, she raced of it and fired her slash harkens at a fixed gun position taking aim at her men, the dual hit from her harkens destroyed the gun and most likely killed the crew.

" **Right…Then I'll cover you from the rear**." Guilford stated rather awkwardly as he should have been used to this by now but none the less, he still felt very protective of his princess even if he knew she was capable of defending herself.

"Hmph." Cornelia snorted as she turned to face the mountain, as if peaking to it was she placed her machine hand on its waist to mimic the movement of a waiting creature. " **Well Cornelia is here! Is there no-one who will challenge me?** " she called out over an open channel, egging them on not knowing that another party had heard her message and was gearing up to meet her head on.

" **She sure got more arrogant since the last time we saw each other**." Nunnally said over the radio to her brother. She, Suzaku and Lelouch had set up a private channel that was quadruple protected to ensure it wouldn't be hacked so they were comfortable to speak each other's name. While their native friend was due to lead the attack on the airbase Cornelia would no doubt call upon for aid when she realised their trap, she had taken command of the medical units posted near the rear to help save as many lives as they could.

" **Yes she has dear sister but I do mean to take her up on that challenge after-all**." Lelouch responded as he went over the battle plan on the screen in front of him as the last of their troops got into positon. By now, the only ones still on the mountain top were the 20 of the knightmares they brought along with 12 of the APCs carrying the shock troopers.

"… **Be safe big brother**." Nunnally said, most likely worried for his life as he was for hers, they knew they were trained and trusted each other to do their tasks but siblings will always worry about the unknown.

" **And too you, I wish the same. May the force be with you miss short stack**." Lelouch responded with a grin as she pictured the pissed off look on his sister face at his jab.

" **WHY YOU-!** " Was the part of Nunnally answer he would have heard if not for his radio suddenly 'cutting'.

"It seems that I lost the connection." Lelouch thought to himself as it had nothing to do with his finger on the drop call button, nope none whatsoever.

(With the Britannians)

"Some things wrong here, their too fragile." Was Cornelia's assessment as she landed from impaling another unit and not even turning to watch as it exploded, ranking up her 11th kill. She figured that this would be another victory but she didn't think it would be this easy. The number of enemies they had encountered was only much smaller than anticipated.

" **This may be the target, enemy resistance appears to be much stronger here. Split up now and send word to command**." General Alex ordered as he and the knightmares that followed him split into smaller squads.

(With Genbu)

"No good, the first attack wave has been wiped out and the second wave has taken heavy losses." An officer reported as the Britannian all but brushed aside whatever they threw at them.

"But it seems that the Britannian advance is indeed slowing down." Another tried to stay optimistic as their tactics had somewhat blunted the enemy advance.

"But not stopping." The first one shot back, reminding them that this was just slowing down the outcome.

"I hate to say it but if we were alone this day, their sheer dominance would wipe us out." Genbu spoke as the gravity of their poor position set in and made him fall back into his chair. Were they really that outmatched as the strongest and largest group in Japan, they would still be wiped out in a day? Did they need Zero that much?

(Meanwhile)

" **General Alex, based in the analysis of the enemy's movements, we believe that large cave opening to be the main entrance into the enemy base**." One of the pilots stated as he highlighted the cave for them all to see on their screens. It wasn't to big but it could easily fit a knightmare or truck driving in. there was a well-used dirt path leading into it which looked like it had been hastily covered up, supporting the theory they had that the JLF didn't know they were coming.

" **So it seems but this feels…odd. Why would there base in a cave of all things?** " Alex asked himself as they had encountered many caves during their numerous tours in the former MEF, none of which were ever good.

" **Sir?** " One of his men asked him, worried about what he was talking about, they knew that caves were dangerous but at the same time, this is where they had been looking for.

" **Call it in then but keep your eyes open and your factspheres scanning**." Alex ordered as he positioned himself in a position where he could fire on anything that left the cave, his men taking similar positions.

" **Yes, my lord**." His men said as one of them fired off a signal flare into the sky so that the rest of the forces would know of what they fund.

" **Is that Alex?** " Cornelia asked as she led her me up the mountain, they had defeated just about everyone who stood against them and were making good progress, sure the odd unit slowed them down but she hadn't lost anyone yet, they had just sustain some damage.

" **So that's where the main enemy base is located?** " Guilford states/asked as he didn't think they would find it this quickly.

" **If that's the case, we'll be securing our position here**." Cornelia ordered as she came to a stop.

" **Are you sure about this?** " Guilford subtly teased with a small smile.

" **I don't need to steal achievements from my subordinates. Send the reserves to back up Alex, looks like he'll be getting his 6** **th** **medal**." Cornelia joked.

" **He still has to catch up to Dalton, that beast of a man has well over 15 at this point, I hear he can't put them all one uniform so he spreads them**." Guilford responded with a chuckle at the memory of seeing the elder man picking out the uniforms to put the medals on.

" **Knowing Dalton, I can see him doing just that**." Cornelia shot back as she too recalled attending more than one ceremony when that man got a medal.

.

.

" **General, have they been lured in?** " Zero asked as he laid in wait for their chance, the enemy had completely fallen for their deception and would soon be paying for it.

" **Yes, from what we can't count, a good chunk of them have gathered around the faux opening and are preparing to storm it**." Genbu replied as he sent them the information on the enemy movements, something which made Zero chuckle at seeing that it was true.

" **Good, be ready for the show in 60 seconds.** " Zero stated, something Genbu was happy about as he was starting to think that Zero turned tail.

" **Tohdoh will launch as soon as it breaks and attacks Cornelia's rear**." Genbu said as they needed to close the viceroy off from her men and box her in.

" **And we're charge right on down and hit them from the front and left side while both our guns lay into them from the right**." Zero finished their omnidirectional assault would put the colonials on the defensive which was the last thing they predicted Cornelia could prepare for, after all-going from the one storming the fort to the stormed that quickly had never been done.

" **Good Luck**." Genbu said as he signed off.

.

.

"This bugs me." Nonette suddenly said, gaining everyone's attention. She and the small contingent of her own forces. They had met up with the Lancelot and had been on stand-by over since.

"My lord?" Rai asked as that was the first thing she had said since arriving.

"The battle going too smoothly, it's like they're not even fighting for their lives." Nonette explained as she found it too easy, it screamed trap but knowing how racist nelly could be, she probably didn't think much of it.

"Do you think they found out and moved the bulk of their forces away?" Cecile proposed.

"It's possible but I think that it's going to be Zero instead." Nonette stated as she had a gut feeling he was nearby.

"But how would he assist them at this point, the JLF is all but beaten and the Viceroy did bring a whole lot of men with her, Zero can't have the number to meet that unless he throws just about everything he has into this fight." Was Lloyd's flippant reply as he had actually read up on the name so they could have a better chance of getting him back near nearly totalling his precious Lancelot.

"Which is something we both know he would never do." Cecile finished the thought as eh looked towards the mountains in fear of what could happen should things go wrong.

.

.

.

" **It's time, Q1 if you would?** " Zero ordered through Kallen com-link, she was getting anxious with the lack of action they were getting and was very glad to receive those orders.

" **Roger**." Kallen replied as she powered up the radiant wave surger and moved towards one of the exposed excavators.

"Here we go." Alleujah said to himself as he geared up for what was surely going to be a brutal battle.

" **Output confirmed, Wave Surger levels ready and holding. Setting to penetrative electrode number 3**." Kallen read out as she put in the correct inputs to power up the surger while maintaining control of the energy usage. She waited till the readings are peaked before she breathed out and fired it off. " **Activating gauntlet now**." She fired it off. At first nothing happen to which Kallen thought she had somehow failed or that the surger didn't perform like they expected but that all changed when they started to feel the rumbling.

"Yes!" Kallen cheered as the mountain exploded due the build-up of steam and gas underground. The wave of water was soon turned dark brown as it collected debris, sand, stone and rocks. The trees in the path of the landslide were uprooted and carried along by the wave of death and mayhem.

"Damn he said it would be big but not this big!" Genbu cursed as he and the rest of the command staff held up to anything for dear life as the whole mountain shook with the force of the explosion and subsequent landslide.

(With Dalton)

" **What the Hell!** " Dalton yelled as he and the rest of his men were caught in in and washed down the mountain side, some being killed as their cockpit gave out for were smashed against the rock face, killing them.

(In the G1)

"What's happening?" Euphemia asked as the map they were looking at of the mountain showed that a wave of some sort appear and hit some of their units.

"This should be impossible, how can a landslide come out of no-where." One of the officers stated with plate like eyes as they could all but watch as a large chunk of their force was hit.

"Alex and Dalton's units are getting wiped out!" Another yelled as it became clear that they were suffering the worst of it.

"No…it's mostly hitting Alex's units. Quick, try and make contact with them!" The third ordered a deck officer as to try and establish order again.

(With Dalton)

" **Climb! Get to higher ground!** " Dalton yelled over the coms as he barely held on to the nearby rock face with both his slash harkens, he could not see where the rest of his men went and could only hope that there were still alive.

(With Cornelia)

" **Status report!** " Cornelia demanded as she and her units watched as the landslide ate anything and everything in its path, retching havoc and chaos in its wake.

" **We're still trying to confirm**." One of her officered replied as they struggled to get a handle of the situation as they could barely make contact with their men on the ground before the connection was cut.

" **Please you highness, pull back you're in danger there!** " Guilford urged her as he tried to pull her away from the edge in fear of it giving way and sending her into the mess only for her to brush off his attempts.

" **I don't care, forget about me. Find out about Alex and get in contact with Dalton**." Cornelia ordered as she tried to rise the both of them on their commander's only comlink but was getting so such luck.

(With Nonette and the Special Corps)

"Oh my, at this rate, they'll be swept away all the way to the bottom." Lloyd aired as he and Cecile also saw the catastrophic wave of the landslide in their own monitors.

"These heat rating are abnormal, do you believe that a hydro-volcanic eruption was artificially induced?" Cecile asked her boss as she stood up in shock at the damage she was seeing, only for Lloyd to reply calmly like always.

"Impossible, unless of course if someone has gotten their hands on Rakshata's Radiant Wave Surger." He stated as he couldn't think of any other way someone would be able to cause a landslide of this magnitude so suddenly.

"What's going on?" Nonette asked them as she walked up behind them.

"It seems that a freak landslide has taken out a good portion of our forces." Lloyd told her but was suddenly moved out of the way with a yelp as Nonette pushed him out of the way to see the event for herself. What she witness sent a shiver down her spine as there was no way this was an accident, someone triggered this just as the bulk of their forces would be caught in it.

"…Could it be?" Nonette uttered to herself as she back up and allowed Cecile to help her boss up to his feet. "Kanazawa!" she yelled in the direction of the Lancelot.

"Yes my lord?" Rai replied as he stood from his seat in the cockpit to address her with a salute.

"Get ready to launch, I have a feeling that this wasn't some accident. Tell the other pilots to do the same." Nonette ordered him as she made her way over to her personal knightmare.

"Y-yes my Lord, right away." Rai confirmed as he jumped down from the Lancelot and raced to find where the other pilots had went to relax as they waited for orders.

(With Zero)

'My, that was bigger than we predicted. If all went as planned, the centre of Cornelia's forces should be all but wiped out and it looks like we got a good chunk of their right flank as well.' Zero thought to himself as he led his squad and some other knightmares down the mountain in a direct course for Cornelia's position.

(With the Princess in question)

" **New enemy force confirmed moving from the summit. Carious unit is moving to engage them now**." One of the deck crew reported over the radio.

"Hoping to take advantage of the confusion are they?" Cornelia uttered to herself as it seemed like a smart move to do so now that their ranks were in disarray but she couldn't help but wonder how they avoided the wave as well.

" **Emergency call from Carious unit**." The same deck crewmen reported, now sounding off balanced.

" **What's wrong?** " Cornelia asked.

" **They have engaged the enemy force and have suffered heavy casualties, they believe it the Black Knights**." The crewmen reported as he watched the IFFs for Carious's unit were wiped out one by one.

" **What, then it's-** " Cornelia stated as at the same time, Kallen destroyed another Sunderland that had gotten their way, defeating the first of their obstacles.

" **Mam, the Black Knights have broken through Carious unit, they've been destroyed**." The crewmen reported as the last of Carious unit was destroyed.

(With the charging Black Knights)

" **Cornelia only has her rear units to call on, smash right through them!** " Zero ordered as they continued down the mountain towards their target.

" **Roger**." All his men replied as Tieria aimed his large 100mm Blaster Cannon down at a column of Tanks that had yet to see them. As they lined up, the rest of the squad got out of his way as he fired the massive weapon, each shot blowing apart the conventional tanks and leaving flaming remains in their wake.

"Alright, we have the targeting data. Ready" One of the mortar crew men stated as she watched as the three mortars she was in charge of were loaded. "Aim" she gave them a few seconds to pick their targets as they were in basic training. "Fire!" and with that three high explosive shells were fired off into the distance, seconds later they came down a rather large gathering of surviving infantry, blasting most of them to pieces and maiming the rest.

" **Hits confirmed, moving into next target, over**." Inoue stated over the radio to command as the mortars were reloaded for the next shot.

" **Good hit A2, keep it up, over**." Warwick complimented as he was put in charge of overseeing the operation from their specially built mobile command truck.

" **P3, a column of 4 enemy APCs is heading your way, destroy them**." One of the crewmen to his side relayed to a unit of the infantry.

" **Roger**." They responded as they got into position and waited for the APCs to drive on by, once they had shown them their sides, the rockets flew and struck each of them, within seconds the enemy APCs had been destroyed.

" **Command, I see 3 tanks righting right through sector 3, orders?** " One of their scout units reported as they saw some of Cornelia's rear men try and make the journey up to no doubt reinforce her position.

" **Paint them for A4 and A6 so that they can land some lead on them. Over**." Warwick ordered as he took a couple moments to think about it.

" **Orders confirmed, painting target**." Was the reply as the scouts took out their laser pointers and pointed at the sides of the last tank in the column to avoid them seeing it and figuring out what was happening.

" **Targets spotted, laying down a barrage. Over.** " The mortar units radioed in as they fired off 12 projectiles on them, they of course tried to move out of the way but the narrow path didn't do them any favours and pretty soon the crew of one of them abandoned the vehicle just as it exploded and joined the rest of them as out of commission.

This wasn't isolated incidents either as all around the battlefield, the Black Knight forces that had been in hiding woke up and were striking at any and all threats they could find with bullets, knightmares, mortars or rockets. The JLF weren't slacking either as their main force was quick to join in as they fought against the surprised and now, defending Britannian force. Already word had been given that Tohdoh and the four holy swords had joined the battle and like Zero were making their way to Cornelia.

"All tasks at hand have been cleared, now Cornelia. What shall you do?" Zero said to himself with a smirk as he dodged the fire from a Tank before firing off his twin Anti-Armour Blaster cannon, ripping apart the vehicles armour plating before he blew up.

The true Battle had begun.

 **Alrighty then, that covered the first part of the battle but don't worry, there will be plenty more in the following chapters since I promised surprises and I intend on delivering. Now here are the codes and other stuff you should otherwise you might get confused.**

 **Infantry (P)**

 **APCs (R)**

 **Tanks (E)**

 **Mortars (A)**

 **Knightmares (K)**

 **Gunships (B)**

 **Dropships (C)**

 **Tieria Erde knightmare(** **CGUE Heavy Fire)**

 **Technical Specifications**

 **Model Number: ZGMF-515-ZS3**

 **Unit Type: High Performance Heavy Ordnance Unit**

 **Overall Height: 5.39m**

 **Gross Weight: 8.43 Metric Tons**

 **Developed From: ZGMF-515 CGUE**

 **Equipment**

 **Standard: Cockpit Ejection System; Factsphere Sensor; Landspinner Propulsion System; I.F.F Transponder System; Unit Transponder System; Ion Engine Flight Pack; Class-4 Shield Generation system; Cockpit Life Support System which can keep pilot alive for 42 hours(1 3/4 Days); Self-Destruct Feature; Field Survival kit with pistol(5 magazines) and Shotgun(21 rounds)**

 **Armaments**

 **Fixed: 2x Wrist-Mounted Slash Harkens; 1x Torso-mounted 15mm Anti Material Machine Gun; 2 x Shoulder mounted MMI-M8B 75mm Blaster cannons**

 **Optional: 1 x MMI-M7S 100mm Blaster Cannon.**


	18. A New Front: Part I

**Well it's certainly been a while since I updated this one and I apologies. As you can imagine this chapter will continue with the battle of Narita but not from the POV you were expected. As many of you might have noticed, Suzaku isn't present here and that was for a reason, one your about to find out. I'll also be putting in some other curveballs to add to this.**

* * *

 **Chapter 18: A new front: Part I**

 **4** **th** **September 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Narita Imperial Air-Base**

Narita Imperial Air-base, formally known as Narita International Airport was once the busiest airport in all of Japan. Hosting flights to and from as far as France. Built in the 1940s just as the country was going through an economic boom to help relieve pressure off Haneda Airport. Its state of the art facilities and two asphalt paved runways, one 4,000m in length and the other 2,500m made it a prime target for the invading Britannian forces. After the war, it didn't take long for the new colonial government to take control of it from the newly established NAC and turn it into an imperial air-base outside of the Tokyo Settlement(Which was at the time still under construction).

The city of Narita itself was largely abandoned after the war as war-time bombing raids had reduced most of it to rubble, leaving only hollow husks and damaged buildings behind. It was in these damaged sites that the Black Knights had set up shop, using them to cover their movements.

" **Is everything ready?** " S.K. asked his men through the radio. He was seated inside his own spider mech awaiting to begin the operation. He was slightly angry he wasn't in the main battle but understood his role. The base itself was much different to the air-port he remembered as the colonials had added another 3,000m runway and build up a whole two lines of defences around the place.

" **Yes sir, all entry teams are in position.** " The Knightmare to his side answered.

" **All sniper teams are in position**." One of the sniper hidden in the old abandoned buildings nearby reported as she set her scope onto the perimeter guards.

" **Armoured units are ready and awaiting further orders**." Another unit called it, this one comprised of 12 2SI Gvozdika self-propelled guns they had brought from the E.U. They were old yes, but they did the job they were built for.

" **Knightmare squads locked and ready for action, sir**." A trooper replied over the radio. He along with 20 others had set up a field command station far from the action to keep them out of sight and firing range of the brits.

" **Good. If all goes as planned, the main force will be attacking in the next couple of minutes. Be ready to storm this place when the call goes out**." Suzaku reminded them as he flexed his fingers on the controls sticks, if he was honest with himself, he was excited about finally being able to test his own machine and skills outside simulation.

" **Yes sir, it'll be a pain in the ass if those birds can take off.** " Another knightmare replied, this one is particular being piloted by one of the former W-0 pilots Leila had brought with her when she joined them. In fact, all three machine with him were former W-0. The machine in question was piloted by none other than Akito himself.

" **That's why we're not gonna shot them all to hell, we need some too.** " Another one replied. This one named Ayano Kosaka.

" **I hear that, the brit spends billions on their gear, they can afford to share**." The third added, Ryo Sayama.

" **I doubt the Viceroy will agree**." Kosaka replied as she checked over her screens and other functions one last time.

" **Oh she can kiss my ass if she doesn't**." Sayama rebutted.

" **Enough chatter, keep it professional**." S.K. spoke up, silencing them as all went quit for a while. The only sounds he could he was the filtered ventilation and whine of the computers cooling systems. 'I hope this works Lelouch…oh who I'm kidding, that pretty boy is almost never wrong.' Suzaku thought to himself as he went through his breathing exercises to calm himself and clear his mind. They had surrounded the air-base from all sides with Knightmares teams to the east and west while the APCs hidden to the south, the forward infantry teams were to penetrate from the north and west.

(Flashback)

"The Airbase?" S.K. asked. It was the month prior to the raid and he along with Lelouch and his top pilots had been called to discuss the plan in detail.

"Yes, prior to the colonial occupation, Narita Airport was the busiest airport in Japan. After the fall of the country, Clovis had it converted into an Imperial Air-base seeing how it had most of the essentials already." Tieria reported as she showed them numerous pictures of the place from before the war and present ones taken by their scouts.

"Look at that, the prince actually chose the cheaper option." Lockon stated as he leaned back into his seat.

"He probably wanting to use the rest of the funds for something stupid." Kallen added, feeling angry at the reminder of how corrupt and self-indulgent the elite could be.

"Regardless, it's pretty obvious that if the battle starts to turn against the Brits, they'll call in an airstrike from this base. If we take it out, they can't do that but that's not the plan." Zero reminded them as he pointed to the map of the Narita mountains and how they had calculated such a strike would arrive in minutes, not enough time to prepare if caught flat footed.

"Then what is?" Alleujah spoke up for the first time in the meeting.

"We're going to steal some of those birds, at least 6 and at most 15. Smaller, more specialised teams will infiltrate the base and shut down their communications arrays which will give you time to destroy the place and make off with those birds. When the Viceroy does call in that strike, respond and head to us but start attacking the colonist. Also," Tieria explained as he showed them some of the more descriptive shots they had gotten from spies and friendly eleven staff. Theses one showing where the Helicopters and Jets were stored and repaired. "The infiltration teams will each be supplied with 40kg of plastic explosive which they are to plant in pre chosen locations and set them off to act as distractions for their exfil."

"So they'll won't know what the hell is happening, it'll further add to the disarray. Making it easier for us-" Kallen started as she saw the beauty of the plan.

"To tear right through them. And the objective?" Lockon finished, smiling at the thought of what the brits would do when they realized this mid-battle.

"Put the fear of defeat into her, penetrate their lines and strike at the G1, if you destroy it then good for us, if that seems impossible, then retreat to point E5 as planned." Zero told them as he handed each of folder with their individual tasks for the engagement. "We dedicating over half our combat force into this, it will be a decisive blow to either us…or them. I hope you all understand." Zero reminded them as they knew if they lost this, then they'll be out of the fight for quite some time.

Time they don't have.

"I'll complete my mission as ordered." Tieria said as he read through his file.

"Same here, defeat isn't an option." Liu Mei replied with her usual elegant smile.

"Defeat is not a concept I enjoy, you'll get results alright." Lockon replied.

"I won't let you down sir, I promise." Kallen stated, wishing to prove that she could stand with these men and women as an equal.

"Then you are dismissed. S.K. would you stay behind? We need to go over the air base raid in detail." Zero released them as S.K stayed seated for another 20 minutes before he too left.

(Flashback end)

" **Sir, it's time**." One of the field officers reported.

" **Send in the infiltration teams**." Suzaku gave out the order.

" **Their in**." Another reported after some tense few minutes as it took some time for the teams to get in undetected.

" **They've made contact. No signs that the enemy knows they're there**." One reported as she kept on checking the comms for anything out of the ordinary.

" **Then all we can do is wait**." Suzaku said as he ordered them to radio silence till such a time when the infantry teams complete their objectives.

(Narita Mountains)

" **What are our losses?** " Dalton asked his men as he looked down at the destruction he was lucky to escape.

" **My Lord, I only have signals from 20 percent of our forces**." One of them reported, sounding just as shocked and scared as he felt right now.

" **20 percent!? Our command structure can't sustain this**." Dalton exclaimed, how could this have happened?

(With the Special Engineering corps)

" **This is the Marcel Unit, I can't rise General Alex. It seems the second division has been wiped out!** " Was heard throughout the trailer as the radio lines had been nothing but chaos since the quake hit.

"Lloyd, what seems to be the problem?" Rai asked from the open cockpit of the Lancelot.

"There seems to be reports coming in of the Black Knights presence here." Lloyd replied with his usual smile as he didn't feel much for the poor souls dying right now.

"The Black Knights? Here?" Rai asked, this wasn't supposed to involve them, how they even get here so fast, the government had been sure to cover as much of the operation as possible.

"This will be a fine chance to test out Lancelot…and get some sweet payback on Zero to damaging my creation." Lloyd said, the light reflecting off his eyes as he thought of his sweet vengeance.

"Must you be so brash?" Cecile asked him, signing at his child-like behaviour.

"If you're not used to it by now, I'm surprised that you still work for him." Nonette said as she walked right on in getting everyone except Lloyd to quickly stand and bow or salute her.

"Lady Enneagram!" Cecile said surprised she was present.

"How soon can you launch?" She asked her, not replying to the unspoken question.

"Huh?" Cecile asked, confused.

"We can have it prepped and ready within ten minutes, my lady." Lloyd answered, already working on the final preparations.

"Then do it. Nelly isn't going to last long if that thing Zero has shown up. We need to reinforce her and retreat." Nonette replied as she got ready to leave herself to get her own knightmare.

"Retreat my Lady? It is that bad?" Rai asked, he had never heard of Cornelia retreating from….well anything, there was never the need to do so.

"That eruption was too convenient to not have been caused by Zero in some way. We need to get out there as soon as we can." Nonette said as she walked out the door, dread filling her gut as the thought of her dear friend being killed.

"Yes, my lord!"

(G1 Command station)

"Is the Viceroy safe?" One of the staff asked as they watched the chaos unfold on their real time battlefield map.

"Yes, she was outside the mudflow but the units guarding her flank are lost, meaning that she's totally isolated." Another replied as they tried to get back-up on the way but the terrain and terrorists weren't making things easy.

"My Lords, enemy movement from the Viceroy's rear. They already took out Alban's unit!" One of the controllers reported as he checked over the screens looking for any more details.

"What! Where they come from?" The first one asked.

"We don't know sir, chances are that they are JLF reserves that came from within the mountain." The controller replied as they narrowed down the possibilities.

"Send word to the Viceroy, she must be informed of this at once." Euphemia ordered as she begun to fear for her sister's life, never before had such a situation occurred, she had never thought she'll see a day where her sister was outwitted by someone other than Schneizel.

"Your highness, already on it."

(With the Black Knights)

"Let me see you burn Britannian!" Kallen yelled as she latched onto the 4th sunderlands head in as many minutes and activated the radiant wave surger.

" **What? No, NOOO!"** Was the last thing the pilot spoke before his machine was superheated and blew up with them inside, leaving no chance of survival.

" **Alright Q-1, K-3, K-5 move to your planned points. We're break through the rest of these small fry**." Zero ordered as he fired on another sunderland with a spray of his Anti-Knightmare Tri barrelled Mini-gun, within seconds, it had punched over a dozen holes in its armour before it blew up just as the cockpit block ejected and flew off.

" **Roger that!** " Kallen, Lockon and Tieria replied as they left in three separate directions from the group who kept in charging down the mountain towards the target.

" **Let's get this done already**." Alleujah stated, wishing to finish things here before moving on.

" **Why, have a date coming up or something?** " Wang teased as she shot a Sunderland in the back, killing the pilot and disabling the machine. In response to her question, Alleujah stuttered over his words as he tried to reply.

" **S-something like that**." He replied with a blush on his face as he thought back to the silver haired maiden he was meeting up with.

'That's right. Move swiftly, strike like iron and dance like wind. If you can survive this battle then you may call yourselves true warriors.' Zero thought to himself with his emotionless game face as he fired off a volley of missiles onto two sunderlands, destroying both with only one cockpit block jetting away.

(G1 Command)

"What do you mean they've been wipe out!" One of the staff officers yelled, there was no way.

"My Lord, Viceroy Cornelia's forward units have been defeated. We're only getting signals from 10% of them, the Black Knights are closing in on her!" The controller replied, showing signs of panic as this was something that had never happened before, they never lost this many people so quickly, hell they've never lost this many people, period.

"Wait, something approaching the Viceroy from behind." Euphemia said as she saw a new tag approaching her sister's position.

"Are those?" One of the officers started before the dot become categorized as JLF.

"Yes, those are JLF tags. But when they get there?" Another asked as he tried to make sense of this.

"Worry about that later, send word to the Viceroy immediately!" The first one ordered as they scrambled to get as many people to her as possible.

(With Tohdoh)

" **All units, are you ready?** " Tohdoh asked as he and his four followers sped over the landscape towards their target. They were using the new knightmares the Black Knights had supplied with the only difference from the ones the BK were using being that theirs was painted with JLF Green and Brown camo rather than black and grey

" **Yes sir!** " Was the response.

" **Okay, deploy your GINNs**." He ordered as they reached the last hill between them and their targets.

" **Deploying**."

" **Listen carefully, the mission objective is the death or capture of Princess Cornelia, the landslide has drastically cut the enemy numbers down and panic is spreading through their lines. It is time for us to take our vengeance for what happened ten years ago**." Tohdoh reminded them with a grim face as he was the first to make it over the hill. Catching the Britannians by surprise.

" **Yes sir, by the honour of the Four Holy Swords!** "

(With Cornelia)

"What?" Cornelia said as she noticed an enemy knightmare jump into their small clearing and cleave the closest knightmare to it in two by the waist. That was no Burai!

" **Aren't those?** " Guilford asked before it came to him what those were, he instinctively jumped in front of the Viceroy's knightmare and drew his weapon. " **Protect her highness**." He ordered the men as they quickly formed up a defensive barrier between them and the newly arrived GINNs.

" **Surround them**." Tohdoh ordered his men as he cut down another sunderland, before cutting off the gun wielding hand of another. Before the damaged unit could try to counter with its lance, Urabe got right in its face and stabbed it through the chest, killing the pilot.

" **Those colours, the Japan Liberation Front? When they get their hands on Black Knight equipment?** " Cornelia asked herself, how could they not have known about this? When she got back to the Tokyo settlement, Intelligence is going to have a lot to answer for.

" **Slash and encircle**." Tohdoh commanded as he drove right one by another sunderland and slash off both legs before shooting it in the chest.

" **Yes sir!** " His men replied as Chiba cut down another as Asahina and Senba double teamed on another.

"You must recognise these machine Cornelia, you must know their superiority to your own Sunderlands." Tohdoh spoke, just from this shot encounter, he could tell that the Black Knights made machines were a force to be reckoned with, he was confident no Burai could come close to this level of performance.

" **This reminds of ten years ago**." Asahina said, feeling happy about this.

" **But it's different now, this time we have knightmares as well, superior models to these in almost every way**." Chiba added, feeling the same way, having the power to fight back was a refreshing change.

" **Your highness, leave then us please, you have to withdraw for now**." Guilford insisted as he charged Tohdoh and locked blades with him. Showing that their machines couldn't really out-power the other.

" **Very well, I know a way we may turn this around. Guilford**." Cornelia relented as she thought of a new plan. " **After you drive them back, meet me over at point 9**."

" **Nine? I understand**." Guildford asked before he nodded his head and turned his attention to his own opponent.

" **Cornelia!** " Urabe and Senba yelled as they charged her but she fired off both her slash harkens at that, forcing them to block.

" **You weaklings** " Cornelia yelled as she thrust her lance at Urabe, forcing him to doge lest he take damage. With his path momentarily clear, she sped away from the battle with her royal guard blocking the HLF from following.

(With Zero)

" **Bye bye now**." Wang said as she dodged a clumsy lance thrust before she jumped back to make some space.

" **You bastar-AWG!** " Was the last thing the pilot said as he was killed when Alleujah deployed his shield's built-in hidden vibro dagger and drove it into the cockpit block.

" **Sorry about that but one should speak with manners when addresses a lady**." Alleujah said as she pulled out his dagger and let the machine fall lifelessly to the ground.

" **Zero, Tohdoh has made his move**." Warwick reported just as he himself got the reports in.

" **Excellent, everything's moving according to the plan**." Zero said as he recalled everything else that had yet to happen. " **And Nonette, has she made any moves yet?** " It took a couple of seconds for a reply to get through.

" **Yes sir, it appears that she is prepping to enter the fray**." Warwick replied after looking around the numerous screens till a technician pulled him over to his station which was responsible for monitoring the G1.

'So soon enough, we'll have a knight of round of the playing field, can't have her messing with things as they are.' Lelouch thought to himself as he had prepared countermeasures for her as he refused to take chances with one of the finest the empire had to offer. " **K-3, are you in position?** " Zero asked his long ranged heavy gunner.

" **Yes sir**." Tieria replied from his position overlooking the enemy backlines and rear.

" **And you K-5?** " Zero asked as he and the rest of his men moved on as they had defeated the last enemy knightmare.

" **Ready and waiting, should I start firing?** " Lockon asked from his position overlooking the Royal guard and Four Holy Swords duke it out.

" **Negative, only begin your fire mission if one or more try to make their way to Cornelia's position**." Zero replied, he didn't need Guilford knowing about him just yet. It had to be a real surprise to him.

" **Roger that**." Lockon replied as he prep his 84mm Sniper Rifle.

(With Tohdoh)

" **Prime Minister, I apologise for the late arrival**." Tohdoh said as he opened a line of communication with the main base.

" **No need to say so, I already got word the entrance we planned to use was destroyed and that you needed to use another on further down the mountain.** " Genbu replied as he watched how the Britannians were actually being pushed back, slowly but surely.

" **Even so, I request that you send us reinforcements, if we can crush her royal guard here, it'll go a long way in this war we fight**." Tohdoh responded as he powered out of the 9th lock between him and Guilford and moved back.

'I heard Are 11 has an exceptional commander, their banner boy. Is this him? Tohdoh?' Guilford asked himself as he was beginning to grow frustrated with how he was still unable to take him out, as it stood now, the royal guard had been cut down by 30%. They didn't have time for this. " **Fine then, try me if you dare!** "

(Dalton)

" **Damn it, we have to make our way to Princess Cornelia**." Dalton ordered his men as he kept on firing his rocker launcher down range.

" **But sir, the enemy's main base is right in front of us, we retreat now and we'll lose all the progress we made**." One of the gloucester pilots returned.

" **You fools, if Princess Cornelia is defeated, this whole battle will be a loss!** " Dalton yelled back at him, it didn't matter if they took the whole mountain if they lost her imperial highness to do it!

" **F-forgive me-ahh!** " The soldier tried to say but the ground beneath him collapsed in on itself, swallowing up him and another poor soul, leaving Dalton with just 3 others out of the 17 they started with.

'Damn, the ground is till unstable, anywhere we go may fall in on us!' Dalton was close to strangling someone as he wasn't going to make any progress like this.

(G1 Command Station)

"Princess Cornelia, you must act now and deploy the G1" One of the staff officers pleaded.

"We can't! We have reports of aftershocks and unstable terrain, the G1 is too heavy and slow to move through such!" Euphemia shot down his plea as trying to move such a large object through that terrain would only paint a target on their backs.

"But-!"

"No! We have a field hospital present and evacuated civilians from the nearby area. This G1 is their best line of defence, are you suggesting we leave them under-guarded just to enter a fight?" Euphemia demanded of the officer, showing her own rarely used 'fangs' as she glared at the overzealous officer.

"Wha-n-No, No! Of course not you highness." The officer stuttered and fell over his words as he replied, it was easy to forget just who she was related to with her pacifist nature and friendly demeanour.

"But your highness, what are we to do? Commander Guilford is completely pinned down and commander Dalton won't be able to make it in time to offer any assistance." Another asked, hoping she had a solution.

"Is Lady Enneagram ready yet?" Euphemia asked one of the controllers.

"A few more minutes, your highness. She wishes to meet up with the Lancelot first." The controller responded before something else came up. "Your highness, we're getting some reports."

"About what?" Euphemia asked, how could things get any worse?

"About the Narita Air strip, your highness." The controller replied, proving that things could get worse.

(With Suzaku)

Well, things kinda escalated.

.

.

.

He didn't think they'll catch on so quickly but the response was kinda over the top.

They set off ALL of the charges and blew up 2 whole hangers and a barracks for Christ sake!

" **Man, Naruse would have loved to see that**." Sayama said with a whistle as that was definitely in the top 5 explosions he had seen.

" **Don't worry, I recorded it**." Ayano replied while chuckling at the level of destruction, it wasn't everyday they got to do this shit bit she appreciated whenever they got the chance.

" **And that right there, is way you're his favourite person**." Sayama shot back with a bark of laughter.

" **Well then, move in!** " Suzaku ordered as all their armoured unit begun to load up their 122mm howitzers and Knightmare teams sprung to life and charge at the confused and panicking outer defenders.

" **Yes sir!** " And with that, the Imperial Air strip found itself under attack for the first time in nine years.

(With the Air-base)

"Status!" The commanding officer demanded as he watched fire-trucks fought the blazing inferno that was once a hanger from the Air Traffic control tower.

"My lord, we have not confirmed it yet but we have casualties nearing 100 at present, all KIA." One of the controllers reported as she listened in to the initial reports. It was chaos out there.

"And those damn elevens? Have you found them yet?" The commander asked, they had picked up on them too late and before they could corner them, those damn barbarians set off pre-set charges, at least that was what he suspected happened as hangars don't just blow up!

"No sir, we believe that they used the chaos to escape." Another replied as he kept in touch with the search teams and they hadn't found a sigh of them, they were gone.

"Goddammit, when the Viceroy hears about this, she'll have my head!" The commander growled in anger and fear, he was one of the few people Clovis put in power that wasn't a complete idiot, he didn't need this kind of shit on his record. "What about your planes?" he asked, he was informed that the Viceroy may have need of them and if they couldn't be of use, it'll be worse for him.

"Sir, luckily, over 5 jets were lost and another 2 damaged. We did however, lose 8 VTOLs." The controller replied as fate would have it, many of the planes were in maintenance bays or parked outside.

"Get me the Viceroy, I'm must inform her of this." The commander ordered as he rubbed his forehead as he could feel the headache coming in. what was next with these blasted numbers?

 **BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!**

"WHAT IS IT NOW!?" He cried as the tower itself shook from the shockwaves of those newest blast though he knew those weren't from explosions, those were from shell impacts. The numbers had artillery with them!

"My Lord, we're under enemy attack!" A controller stated as they fell out of their seat and quickly got back into it.

"You don't say! Of course we're under attack you brain dead monkey! But from where!?" The commander yelled at the controller, he was so pissed off he looked like he'll pull out his pistol and kill the imbecile.

"My Lord, they're coming in from north, east and west. We have confirmation of enemy armour and knightmares." Another, more sensible member of the tower staff replied.

"What are you waiting for, scramble the defenders. Get the word out to the Viceroy that we're under enemy attack." The commander ordered as they would need aid if this was as bad as he thought.

"Yes, my lord." The controller replied but before they could get the word out, a blast from a BK GINN's 85mm Short-range Guided Missile Launcher slammed into the tower's windows and killed them all in a storm of glass, fire and metal shrapnel

(With Suzaku)

" **They're not as organised as I thought they would be**." Sayama said he still held the missile launcher in hand as he turned his gaze onto a small group of APCs.

" **That's because you just blew up their command station, they'll do that**." Akito replied as he severed the head off a sunderland before cutting it in two groin to neck while Sayama blew up the incoming APCs.

" **Hold up, I see a fuel depot**." Sayama said as he eyed the large looking concreate fuel station with a wild glint in his eye as he took aim.

 **BOOM!**

" **Well there was a fuel depot**." Kosaka laughed as she saw her friend reduce the place to a burning pile of concreate and steel framework.

" **Where are those birds we're supposed to steal again?** " Akito asked as he blocked a lance thrust before cutting off the arm of attacking knightmare.

" **Hanger 2 and 4, Hangers 1 and 5 are-** " One of the other knightmares present begun to answer but was cut off.

" **Yeah, I know, nothing but burning steel and concreate**." Sayama finished as he rammed a sunderland to the ground before firing on its chest point-blank. All around them number of enemy knightmares begun to drastically drop. The tanks and other armoured units weren't doing so great themselves. Sure they had taken some hits here and there and lost a knightmare or two but it was drops of water compared to the buckets the imperials were losing.

" **I got eyes on some flies**." Akito said as he saw about 11 VTOLs take to the sky and fly towards them, preparing to strafe them most likely.

" **I got em. Come to momma you sweet, sweet targets**." Kosaka laughed as she took aim with both her chest mounted 15mm anti-material machine gun and her 55mm Assault Rifle and started blasting them out of the sky while dodging any return fire.

" **She's really in the mood today**." Suzaku said as he dodged a tank shot before returning fire with two missiles of his own, destroying it.

" **Can't blame her, this is a first real combat assignment in 7 months, she got an itchy trigger finger**." Sayama said as they stop to watch as she shot down each and every one without fail, there were also reminded that an angry woman was dangerous.

A calm headed women in a knightmare on the other hand…that's when you shit your pants.

" **Movement in Hanger 3, looks like they're trying to join their pals**." One of the other knightmares reported as it shot up a nearby building.

" **I got this**." Suzaku said as he raced towards it, as it did so he transformed his spider themed mech into its humanoid form. When the time, he got there moments later, his machine went from a large 6.45m in height to an even larger 7.12m. He reached there and saw how the crews and mechanics all froze at the sight of him and though he would prefer to spare them, he could not. " **Sorry but you can't be allowed to stop us**." Suzaku apologised over his speakers as he pulled out two, two-handed double edged Vibro Katana and went to work cutting up every machine he saw.

(With Tohdoh)

"Damn it, he's fierce." Tohdoh cursed as Guilford forced him back again, though he was able to land some blows tank brush off any that landed, the fact remained that his opponent was still very much in this fight. Something that was apparent as the knight in question pulled out a chaos mine and through it at them. " **Scatter!** " He quickly ordered as he and other four sword all dived to avoid the deadly shrapnel.

" **Lieutenant Colonel, what about Cornelia?** " Urabe asked as they has been at this for a while now, she could have escaped by now.

" **Zero and his people should be making their move right about now. All we can do is make sure she doesn't get any aid**." Tohdoh replied as he and his men prepared to attack again but were beaten to the punch when one of the gloucesters in the back of the group was hit by a high explosive round and blew up.

" **What the hell was that?** " Senba asked, he wasn't aware of any artillery in the area.

"… **Your friendly neighbourhood long ranged assistant. At your service**." Lockon said to them all through his radio. He was peached onto of nearby outcropping about 1,100m away with his custom made 84mm anti-armour Sniper Rifle. He was still looking down his sights as he locked onto another target and fired. It took just over a second for the depleted uranium armour-piercing round struck the gloucester around 30cm below the cockpit block, ripping a hole the size of a baseball in the knightmare before the damage caused it to explode a second later. All that happened within a timeframe of 2.1 seconds.

" **You're European**." Chiba noted from his accent as they all saw the Britannians scramble for cover and be make themselves harder to hit. However Lockon could tell that they thought him a field gun or maybe a tank since their movements were those used by knightmare pilots under fire from such and not from another knightmare with a heavy weapon.

" **Irish, actually, now I would love to chat but we have other concerns right now**." Lockon stated as he took aim again and tried to kill Guilford but missed when the knight was able to avoid the shot and jump behind the cover of some knightmare wreckage.

" **He's right, stay focus on the task at hand**." Tohdoh agreed with him.

" **Yes sir!** "

(With Guilford)

"Goddammit, we're pinned down with no reinforcements." Guilford cursed as he watched another unit got down, victim of another long ranged hit. The shots themselves when he watched them didn't act like an average tank or field gun he was familiar with, which meant that this was an unknown type of gun or it was a knightmare designed one.

" **Sir Guildford, shall be send you aid?** " Euphemia asked him over the radio, even if it was just her voice he could tell she was just desperate for her sister's survival as he was.

" **Forget about me! Please send everything we can spare to Princess Cornelia at once**." Guilford pleaded, sadly his plea came too late as another voice over the radio confirmed.

" **Guilford**." Cornelia started, sounding strained and agitated which weren't good signs. " **That back-up may not get here in time to be much help**." Cornelia said as she stared down the Guren Mk II which stood right in her path.

(With Rai)

" **Advanced Weapons system, Z-01 Lancelot. Utilize sand panels to climb liquefied slope at max combat speed and rescue the Viceroy. You will soon be aided by Lady Enneagram and the reserve reinforcements once they the trip to your location**." Cecile relayed to him as the sand panels themselves had just finished being attached to the Lancelot itself.

" **Yes, my lord**." Rai replied as he performed the systems start-up and gripped the control panels. He waited a bit for the power core to warm up before he breathed out a warm breathe and readied himself for the rematch he had wanted since Shinjuku. " **Lancelot, now launching!** " And with that call, he jetted out of the trailer and made a beeline for the Viceroy's position, closely following him was the knight of nine and 14 other sunderlands she recruited for this.

(With Cornelia)

" **Cornelia!** " Kallen yelled as she charged the imperial princess, getting ready to turn her and her knightmare to superheated sludge.

" **Low-born scum!** " Cornelia counted as she thrust her lance towards the red machine only for Kallen to jump to the side to avoid it and bounce off the nearby rocky wall to land behind the viceroy. Cornelia quickly turned her machine to face her and fired off her slash harkens to jump over another lunge from the fiery redhead. Her slash harkens pulled toward a higher position on the wall where she could quickly look the situation over and analyse what she could.

"Great, first those ono eyes knightmares and now this? Where is Zero getting them from?" Cornelia said to herself as the more the Black Knights revealed, the more they showed that they acted and were supplied like an actual army but the problem was from where? The actual Japanese defence forces weren't this will supplied nor led during the invasion so she was stumped by this. She wasn't given much time to ponder as warning shot off in the cockpit which told her someone had just targeted her. She hastily lowered herself just as a missile smacked right into the cliff face she had latched on to moments prior.

" **It is great to speak to you again, dear Viceroy. I do believe this to be checkmate**." Zero said as he along with Alleujah and Wang stood on an overlooking cliff, his own missile pod still open.

" **Zero**." Cornelia answered, this was his play? All this to corner her?

" **The one and only, shall be celebrate our little get together? Of course you'll have to lay down your arms and after that, I do have some question for you, questions your dear brother didn't have the answers to**." Zero said as he egged her on, something that was working as she still wanted to kill him for what he did to Clovis, regardless of his crimes he is her brother and she would avenge him. She tried to think of ways to keep them busy till back-up arrived but as if he could read minds, Zero shot that thought down. " **And if you're wondering, I'm more than prepared to gun you down where you stand. Face it, your reinforcements won't get here in time, your knight is soon for the grave and your army is being decimated as we speak. I win Cornelia, you lose**." Zero told her as he reviewed footage of Guildford's own situation and another screen showing how the remaining Britannians on mountain were losing most if not all the ground they just cleared and were taking heavy losses, if this kept up then they're would won't much left of the 1st Expeditionary Corps that the empire was so proud of.

" **You're a fool Zero if you think I'll just lay down and die. My men will fight to the last then surrender to you elevens**." Cornelia replied as she got her knightmare back up to its feet and faced the red knightmare right in front of her. " **This one, I defeat this one and I'm home free!** " She determined as she whipped out her knightmare's SMG and let loose a spray of gunfire. In response to this, Kallen jumped and dodged to the left and right to avoid the shots while Cornelia fired off her right slash harken to try and stun her but Kallen whipped out her combat knife to block the attack and snag the cord, holding the harken in place.

" **You got some moves**." Cornelia admitted as she pulled back and thrust her lance once more but this time, Kallen caught it with her knightmare's deadly right hand. As soon as her grip tightened on the weapon, Kallen activated the wave surger, causing the lance and Cornelia's knightmares right arm to bubble and blow out of sharp. Cornelia instinctively detached the arm before the radiation could spread to the rest of her knightmare, leaving her without her lance. She was able to blind Kallen somewhat with the smoke from her arm's destruction but it didn't do her much good as Wang fired on her from behind.

" **Rrg!** " Cornelia let out as her knightmare's left hand and rifle were torn to shreds by Wang well placed rifle burst.

" **Coward, attacking from behind**." Cornelia rebuked as she was forced to kneel as her machine had taken significant damage, leaving her without any real form of defence bar her slash harkens, weapon she knew would not help her in this situation.

" **I did say I would gun you down, besides…don't your attacks methods show acts of cowardice, you of all people know that all's fair in love and war**." Zero shot back with a mocking chuckle, he didn't even have to fire himself. It left him with time to monitor the battle as a whole and he was pleased to see that some of his tanks were nearly on top of the G1 and from the looks of things, the Britannians still hadn't picked up on that.

"The man did tell you." Alleujah agreed with his usual lazy tone, though he was smart enough to not say that on the radio.

(With Dalton)

Meanwhile, Dalton wasn't having a fun day either as the JPF fixed AA guns hammered them from above while both Black Knight and JLF tanks fired on them from below. Sure they were making some progress but if Cornelia' last broadcast was any clue, they were too far out to be of any good. "At this rate, we'll never reach the princess in time." Dalton thought aloud as he watched another 4 of his units be blown to bits with only one cockpit block successfully ejecting. This was turning out to be a major blood-bath.

(With Guilford)

'Where are those shots coming from?' Guilford mind was running a mile a minute trying to pin point the location of their sniper, the man in question would move between four spots every 5 to 6 shots to keep the Britannians on their toes. Still he hadn't shot down as many as he thought he would so they were at least living up to the hype of their skill.

" **Lieutenant Colonel, enemy reinforcements have been defeated**." Senba reported as Asahina made a move on Guilford, only to be knocked away.

" **Excellent work. Switch to spinning life or death formation**." Tohdoh ordered as they all started to encircle Guilford.

" **Yes sir!** " Now driving in circles while taking pot shots every now and then, leaving them with little in the offense department.

"If this goes one, if I can't reach her, then Princess Cornelia-" Guilford panicked as he tried to come up with a plan but it was clear that he didn't have one, not if he planned to make it out of this alive as suicide wouldn't help his princess. His spirit fell further when he heard her voice again.

" **Guilford**." Cornelia said to him, but unlike usual where she sounded confident and powerful, she sounded weak and tired. No, it couldn't be.

(With Cornelia)

" **Guildford, my knight. Take care of Euphie for me, please tell her I love her…and I'm sorry I won't be coming back**." Cornelia said as she got back to her feet, even in her situation, he wasn't to go down on her feet, her pride would never allow such. As she spoke however, the Lancelot and several other Britannian knightmares were speeding towards her unknown to those in the ravine.

" **Your highness!** " Guildford cried, he knew that tone of voice, he had heard hundreds of men and women say the same lines just before they charge the enemy and paid with their lives, he was the one who should die! He was her a knight! How could he call himself that if he couldn't protect her?!

" **I won't surrender. As an Imperial Princess, I'll fight to the last!** " Cornelia resolved herself to her fate as she geared up to charge the Guren, she take this one down with her even if it killed her.

" **Princess Cornelia!** " Guilford plea would go unanswered as she charged headfirst to what would surely be her demise.

" **Just like you expected sir, she really is predictable**." Alleujah said as he like the rest of the squad, were informed beforehand that the chances of the princess surrendering were slim at best. It looked to be their victory with Zero being able to add another royal to his kill list but like all plans, there was a snag, coming right for them.

" **Sir, you have incoming, closing in fast!** " Warwick reported as their scouts just sighted a number of enemy machine heading right for them.

" **What do you mea-What the Hell?!** " Zero started to ask but a blast to the canyon wall interrupted him as it caused the section he and his men were standing on to collapse, dropping them into the ravine as well. Kallen seeing the large dust cloud, wisely moved back to avoid it. It didn't long for the dust and rock to settle to reveal the white and golden of the Lancelot. Along with, the cavalry appeared who all quickly surrounded the Viceroy to give her cover.

(With Lloyd and Cecile)

"Oh my." Cecile said as they read out the readings on their equipment.

"As reckless as ever I see. He used the VARIS to clear his obstacles and make it there in record time." Lloyd said as he never thought if using the weapon in such a way, clearly he made the right choice with his devicer. He'll push the Lancelot to its limits which made it all the more easier to gather data on how to improve upon it.

(On the battlefield)

" **Nelly, you alright?** " Nonette asked as she kneeled her custom purple and white Gloucester Prime to the Viceroy's side.

" **Nonette, is that the Lancelot with you?** " Cornelia asked bewildered, she didn't think help would get in any time soon.

" **Yeah, we saw you were in a pickle and thought, why not?** " Nonette joked as she turned to face the Black Knights who in the meantime had re-grouped and formed up. Alleujah stood by Kallen's side with his rifle raised while Zero and Wand stood on the other with their weapons ready.

" **[Chuckle] Only you Nonette**." Cornelia snickered to herself as she saw the Lancelot and 14 Sunderlands facing their foes with weapons drawn, the BK were outnumbered 4 to 1 but all both women knew that their numbers didn't guarantee them a victory, just a fighting chance.

(With Guilford)

" **She can get her out of there, if there's one person here that can then it undoubtable her**." Guilford said with a sigh of relief knowing that his princess will live to fight another day.

(With Zero)

" **Sir, isn't that knightmare the one from Shinjuku?** " Wang asked as she had read the AAR(After Action Report) on the matter and made sure to memorise this particular unit due to its capabilities.

" **It appears so, they're rearmed it, it seems**." Zero agreed with her as he saw that it was carrying some kind of rifle with it, it was completely different from any type of armament that the Britannians currently fielded, was it a prototype as well?

" **And it brought along some back-up. K-5, how the hell they get here without you blasting them?** " Kallen yelled at the sniper since she was upset she wasn't able to kill a royal.

" **Hey, they cut through the dirt and stone as if it was nothing, I was caught off guard and by the time I got my bearings back, they had already made it half-way**." Lockon defended himself as he moved to a new position in preparation for a retreat. He had done all he could and had about 12% ammo left.

" **You didn't have a clear shot or something?** " Kallen asked, as she took a second to see the hole they come out of and saw how wide the ditch was, when did that get there?

" **Afraid so, they moved through the ditch that white knight made, not even I can make that shot. I didn't think they had a gun that could to that in one shot, it's quite impressive**." Lockon explained as he praised the Lancelot, he knew fine work when he saw it and their enemies certainly knew theirs if this was their trump card.

" **Q-1, move back immediately, ready**." Zero ordered as he gripped his controls, clearly they weren't going anywhere without a fight, something that was just fine with him.

" **Sir!** "

" **They're falling back?** " Rai asked as he saw the BK machine slowly back up, they never showed their backs and their guns were still raised but it looked like they wanted to run.

" **No, they're regrouping, don't let them**!" Nonette ordered as she pulled out her rifle and opened fire on Zero's unit.

" **Yes, my Lord**." The rest were soon to follow as they opened up on the BK as well, who responded by dodging the shots while returning fire, taking glancing hits here and there but for the most part, their armour and shield generators held up, keeping them safe.

" **Please**." Zero taunted as he drifted around a volley from a sunderland before he fired four grenades at it, one missed its mark but the rest hit home and exploded against its chest place knocking it back which gave him time to fire another two which caused the unit to explode.

" **They think these outdated husks can stop us?** " Kallen asked as he avoided a lance attack before he cut off the lance holding arm at the elbow joint before he moved to slash off its head, forcing the pilot to eject due to damage.

" **Now that's just plain insulting. Woooh!** " Wang added as she fired off her won volley but quickly jumped away from her spot just as two sunderlands fired on it. She landed next to Zero again and they both took turns firing as they backed off to some cover.

" **K-2, you alright?** " Alleujah asked as he put away his rifle and pulled out his twin medium Vibro blades.

" **I'm fine but this one really wants to dance**." Wang replied as she saw that three sunderlands were moving on them, trying to outflank them.

" **K-2, switch with Q-1, you're not meant for this kind of combat. Show them your trump card**." Zero ordered as he saw this battle as only a matter of time before they tried to move the Viceroy.

" **Yes sir!** " Wang replied with a smile as she could finally show her stuff. She got out from behind cover while Zero laid down some supressing fire but she jumped into the air, activated her flight systems. The Britannians thought she just used a jet assisted jump but…

She didn't come back down, she was legitimately flying over their heads!

" **That knightmare can fly?!** "

" **When the elevens get that?** "

" **HOW DID THEY BEAT ME TO A WORKING FLOAT SYSTEM!?** " Lloyd yelled, furious that they beat him to that do, Cecile was glad that only Rai could hear him otherwise the Viceroy may have word with them, words that end with them losing tier jobs if not their heads. While they looked upon her with awe, envy or fear, Wang didn't waste time as she pulled out her shotgun and with both weapons in hand, she aimed at Cornelia's unit and fired. She would have it home if not for the Lancelot jumping in front of the blast and shielding the Viceroy with its blaze luminous.

"Enough talk, just fight!" Nonette commanded as that little shot served as wake-up call and the colonials resumed fighting.

* * *

 **Well that was over and done with. I was hoping to fit more into this chapter but I noticed that I was passed 8k and thought that it wasn't worth it seeing how I'll continue this in the next chapter which will cover the last part of the battle and if all goes well, the aftermath.  
I tried to make Euphemia come off as more competent than her cannon self as she is older in this timeline and would have more experience. Though the thing with the G1 makes sense as it has no long ranged weapons and is massive, moving into battle would just make it a giant target, especially since they know the JLF has old pre-war tanks and artillery that could hammer it from afar. The unsure terrain just adds to it being a stupid move to try and use it at that time**

 **It should be obvious that the Britannians will take much more casualties then cannon as the JPF weren't caught off guard by Zero's opening move nor are they as exhausted of men and supplied either as Kyoto has been able to supply them with more materials seeing how this is 3 years ahead of the cannon timeline and because they aren't supplying the BK with as much.**

 **Now onto stats:**

 **DIN RaVeN(Wang Liu Mei Fit)**

 **Technical Specifications**

 **Model Number : AMF-103A DINN RAVEN**

 **Unit Type: Transformable Reconnaissance Aerial Unit**

 **Overall Height: 5.67m**

 **Gross Weight: 7.13 Metric Tons**

 **KMF Generation: Mark VI**

 **Role: Anti-Air; Anti Knightmares; Reconnaissance**

 **Developed From: AMF-101 DINN**

 **Equipment**

 **Standard  
Cockpit Ejection System  
Advanced Factsphere Sensor  
Mirage Colloid Stealth System  
Long Ranged I.F.F Transponder System  
Satellite Linked Long Ranged Sensors  
Unit Transponder System  
Ion Engine Flight Pack+ Foldable Wings  
Class-3 Shield Generation system  
Cockpit Life Support System which can keep pilot alive for 42 hours(1 3/4 Days)  
Self-Destruct Feature  
Field Survival kit with pistol(3 magazines) and Assault Rifle(3 spare magazines)**

 **Armaments**

 **Fixed: 4 x 6-tube chest mounted multipurpose grenade launcher**

 **Optional:**

 **1x Custom Handgun  
1x MMI-M7S 76mm heavy assault machine gun  
1x MMI-M1001 190mm anti-aircraft shotgun**

 **Nightmare Tarantula**

 **Technical Specifications**

 **Model Number: AV-M06**

 **Overall Height: 6.45m(Arachnid form)  
7.12m (Humanoid form)**

 **Gross Weight: 9.47 Metric Tons**

 **AMW Generation: 6th**

 **Role: Zero's personal Transformable Multi-Role Commander Type Unit**

 **Developed From Sino Tarantula**

 **Variants: Nunnally's Unit  
Suzaku's Unit **

**Equipment:**

 **Cloaking Shield  
Advanced Factsphere sensor system  
P.E.C.C.A A.I  
EMP Pulse system  
Internal Heat dampener system  
Tank level Particle Shield generator  
Smooth ball propulsion system  
Integrated Flight and propulsion system  
Ejection block  
Chaff/smoke dispenser  
Slash Harkens**

 **Armaments**

 **Fixed(Arachnid form):**

 **1 x Anti-Personal/Technical machine gun  
2 x Multi-purpose Grenade Launcher  
2 x Missile turrets  
1 x Anti-Knightmare Tri barrelled Mini-gun  
1x Dual Bullseye Energy cannons  
1 x Twin Anti-Armour Blaster cannon  
2 x Smart Missile Launcher turrets  
4 x Leg mounted Combat Vibro blades**

 **Transformed(Humanoid form):**

 **2 x 75mm Foldable HEAT Railguns(Hidden in 3rd set of legs which fold next to the thighs in humanoid form)  
2 x Two Handed Double edged Vibro Katana(Handles pop out right above the railgun barrels)  
1 x 65mm High Powered Blaster rifle(Stored in left front leg/left arm in humanoid form)  
1 x Armoured shield(located on right front leg/ right arm in fixed form)  
1 x Anti-Personal/Technical machine gun(Fixed to the right shoulder) – not present in Suzaku's model  
2 x Multi-purpose Grenade Launchers (Fixed to the left shoulders) – not present in Suzaku's model  
2 x Missile turrets(One fixed to each side of the cockpit) – not present in Suzaku's model**

 **CGUE Scout fit(Lockon Stratos Fit)**

 **Technical Specifications**

 **Model Number: ZGMF-515-ZS1**

 **Unit Type: High Performance Long Ranged Sniper Support Unit**

 **Overall Height: 5.41m**

 **Gross Weight: 8.45 Metric Tons**

 **KMF Generation: Mark V**

 **Role: Anti Knightmare; Anti-Tank; Reconnaissance**

 **Developed From: ZGMF-515 CGUE**

 **Equipment**

 **Standard:**

 **Cockpit Ejection System  
Advanced Factsphere Sensor  
Landspinner Propulsion System  
I.F.F Transponder System  
Unit Transponder System  
Ion Engine Flight Pack  
Class-4 Shield Generation system  
Cockpit Life Support System which can keep pilot alive for 42 hours(1 3/4 Days)  
Self-Destruct Feature  
Field Survival kit with pistol(5 magazines) and Sniper(20 rounds)**

 **Armaments:**

 **Fixed: 2x Wrist-Mounted Slash Harkens  
1x Torso-mounted 15mm Anti Material Machine Gun**

 **Optional:**

 **84mm Amour piercing High Explosive Sniper Rifle  
2 × M68 "Pardus" 45mm 3-barrel Short-range Guided Missile Launcher**


	19. A New Front: Part II

**Well I gonna do it, I'm gonna finish off the Narita arc with this last chapter before I can finally move on to other parts. It was odd writing the last chapter as all of the cannon stuff that took place in it happens in the first half of said episode, the rest was my own add-ons.**

 **Chapter 19: A new front: Part II**

 **4** **th** **September 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Ruins of Narita City:**

"Keep firing boys, we need to keep the brits pinned for as long as possible." Sugiyama ordered as he commanded his own gun crew. He was angry at first that he was separated from his friends when they joined but he understood that everyone has their own skills and abilities and spreading them amongst the different ranks and positions better suited them. Still, there was something fulfilling about commanding a gun that could drop six 122mm HE rounds a minute on targets 15km away. Because if this impressive range, the self-propelled guns he was in charge of had set up camp 11km from the target, far outside visual range and hidden quite well in the ruins of this once populated settlement.

"Sir, we have new orders." The radio operator reported to him.

"So what're you waiting for? What are they?" Sugiyama asked him as he turned his attention to the older gentlemen.

"We are to begin the final salvo and afterwards, fire off some smoke shells to cover their retreat." The operator relayed to him.

"Tell them orders have been received and understood." Sugiyama replied as he opened the hatch on his vehicle to speak with the other crews, they had spotted no enemy nearby and decided to leave their radios open for orders and notifications.

"Understood sir." The operator replied as he went back to his gear and listened into the situation at large being reported.

"Alright people, this is A-Alpha. Begin preparation to fire out last salvos and then switch to smoke shells!" Sugiyama yelled out to ensure everyone heard him, there had been a lull in their firing so he wasn't too worried about one gun firing and masking his voice.

"Roger that." The gun crew next to him replied as they, like the rest of the guns loaded their cannons and adjusted their aim to ensure they struck home. Sugiyama waited some moments to give the crews time to get everything done right before he rose his arm up in the air.

"And….Fire!" And with that, Sugiyama brought down his arm like a guillotine, signalling for the commencement.

 **BOO-BO-BO-OO-OM-BOOM!**

"Man I love my job." Sugiyama said to himself with a smirk, happy they were all issued specialised ear muffs otherwise he would have gone deaf by now.

(With Cornelia)

" **Your highness, you must withdraw immediately, you're in no condition to fight**." One of the sunderland pilots requested of her as he held back the attack from Alleujah.

" **You expect me to turn tail and run?** " Cornelia coldly asked him, he hated that she could see where he was coming from since she had no arms to fight with.

" **Forgive me your highness but it looks like Zero if after you exclusively, the last thing we need is for him to have another shot at you**." Rai agreed with the man as he was locked in fierce combat with Zero, who much to his frustration, was much better than he was in Shinjuku, Rai wasn't sure it was because he had time to build up experience in actual combat or because his machine looked different than before.

" **He's right Nelly and you know it, you're just gonna suck up that pride and get out of here**." Nonette said against her old friend as she fired at Wang to keep her from taking the high ground in the sky, forcing the Chinese girl to change tactics and land on the cliff fall and fire from there.

" **Very well, lead the way**." Cornelia relented as she let one of the reservist lead her away through their man made trench.

" **Zero, she's getting away**." Kallen said as she was forced to stop and destroy two sunderlands that got in her way with well-placed stab to the chest of one and a surge of radiation to the other.

" **Not if I can help it, K-4 pursue, I want her killed or captured, is that understood?** " Zero ordered as he jumped back from the Lancelot and fired off a missile volley, to which the Lancelot avoided. Seeing that he needed to change tactics, Zero started to transform his machine to a better form.

" **Yes sir, I'm on it**." Alleujah said as he raced towards the trench entrance.

" **Don't let him pass!** " Nonette ordered as she got in front of him to try and intercept him but Zero blocked the sword strike with his own, revealing to them his own transformed state. It was unnerving to the knight of round to see that the eight 'eyes' had dropped to four as half the face had been covered up a sort of mouth guard.

" **You have bigger things to worry about, colonial**." Zero said as he knocked her back with a punch to the chest, showing his machine had some serious strength as the chest plate had dented where he struck.

" **Zero!** " Nonette yelled as she pulled out a mace and along with her sword, charge him.

" **So we finally meet in combat, Knight of Nine**." Zero stated as he pulled out his second blade and parried the knight's slash.

" **And this will be out only dance**." Nonette replied with fire in her eyes as she attempted smash his side with her mace, only for Zero to evade the strike by pulling back and going for a thrust to her head to which she deflected.

" **Hm, don't be so sure of it!** " Zero said with what she assumed was a smirk.

(With Suzaku)

" **Status?** " Suzaku asked as he looked around him at all the destruction he had brought. The base itself was nearly destroyed and going by the still falling shells, the artillery were still going at it.

" **Sir, we're successfully destroyed all major facilities here and have grouped up the prisoners as you requested**." One of the pilots reported as she drove up to his side, her machine was missing the left arm but otherwise looked to be sound.

" **Good, have Hyuga look them over, we don't have a lot of room for prisoners so only take the 20 highest ranking**." Suzaku reported, though he figured that would be hard seeing how they figured that the commanding officer and maybe another one of his staff perished when they blow up the control tower, still intelligence of any kind was always welcomed, and hopefully they'll be able to extract some from their POWs

" **And the rest?** " The pilot asked him.

" **Look them in one of the still standing buildings, make sure they know that we are prepared to shoot if they prove troublesome, enough blood as been split already**." Suzaku finished, not in the mood for stubborn fools wanting death over surrender.

" **Sir!** " The pilot replied as she drove off, leaving him with alone Ayano.

" **Kosaka, have the birds been taken yet?** " Suzaku asked her as they both drove out of the ruined hanger and into the daylight, though the smoke and ash from all the wrecks and destroyed buildings messed up the view.

" **The last one is taking off but they may not be needed**." Ayano reported, calm down now that she got her combat fix, besides, the remaining defenders(survivors) weren't much to worry about.

" **Why's that?** " Suzaku asked her as they drove to the edge of the base where they entered.

" **I just spoke with the field command, looks like the main attack has gone off without a hitch and we've been ordered to take the bird with us, they may prove useful down the line**." Ayano replied as the main assault had gone so well Warwick decided that adding air power would just be salt in the wounds and show that they had air power at all: 'better to keep their hands secret till they needed to reveal them' he said.

"Is that right, should've known Zero's plan would go off without trouble. Relay that to the men." Suzaku said to himself as he smiled that the knowledge his best friend would be just fine. " **Artillery, do you copy?** " He radioed.

" **This is A-Alpha, we read you. Do you need that smoke screen yet?** " The artillery replied, Suzaku could hear the sounds of the guns firing in the background.

" **Yes, we need a smoke screen over here, the enemy numbers have dropped to near pathetic levels but they're putting up a fight anyway**." Suzaku replied as he looked over the destroyed base and saw flashes and tracer fire every now and then, really don't these idiots put any value in their lives.

" **Copy that, fire mission ETA 24 seconds**." The artillery radioed before they cut the line.

(With Rai)

"It's as fast as the Lancelot? Just like Zero's?" Rai thought to himself as he took shots at the Guren who for her part, was dodging each and every one like it was rehearsed dance.

"If I can take it down." He thought to himself as the gurn closed the distance, forcing Rai to try and kick the unit only for Kallen to grab the foot and activate the surger. Rai cursed as he detached the sand panel and watched as it bulged up and exploded. He needed to keep his distance with that.

(G1 Command Station)

"Can you make contact with the air base?" An officer demanded, it had been ten full minutes since they lost contact. The last message came in from a terrified pilot who informed them they were under attack. It didn't take a genius to figure out who was attacking them.

"Negative, all attempts have ended with static, I can't get through!" A crewmen replied as they worked to try and re-establish a line of communication but every single frequency was either static or not busy.

"How can they have these kinds of numbers? The airstrip is over 100km away from here." Another officer asked, sweating from all the bad news after the other.

"We need to focus in this battle, the Viceroy is returning here but is being pursued by a single enemy knightmare." Another said, being the voice of reason as he looked over the screen to appraise the situation. "Dalton just broke though, he's about to get there himself."

"Oh thank God." Euphemia breathed out as she nearly fell over when she heard that her sister had been surrounded and about to die.

(With Alleujah)

" **Can't use just surrender already? You already lost**." Alleujah asked over the radio, they hadn't been running long but it was apparent that he would catch up to them, mostly due to his machine being faster and Cornelia's being damaged and low on energy.

" **Never you number!** " Cornelia's escort yelled as he turned and fired at the Black Knight, however his aim was crummy and he missed the first couple of shots, giving Alleujah time to evade the shots and close the distance.

" **[sign] So quick to judge, too slow to see**." Alleujah said as he jumped in front of the Sunderland and slashed at its head, cutting it off before he pulled out his own rifle and aimed it dead centre of the chest.

" **Wha-!** " Before the sunderland could react at all, it found itself shot full of holes, after the 5th bullet made its new home in the cockpit block, the unit exploded. Leaving the Viceroy without defence, something they both knew.

" **There's goes your escort, your highness. You and I both know I can shot you in the back if needs be, surrender and you'll be treated by any POV as stated by the terms of the 2** **nd** **Milan Convention of 1932**." Alleujah stated as he turned to face her, his rifle raised and aimed right at her. But once more, an interruption would stop him.

" **She will do no such thing!** " A Voice said out of the blue before a gloucester came barrelling in from above.

" **What!** " Alleujah said as he looked up at this new threat before he saw it was targeting him with a pretty big looking gun. Shit!" He said as he quickly brought up his shield to tank the hit, which proved to be pretty strong as it forced him back.

" **Dalton!?** " Cornelia asked, she never thought he'll make. How did he even get here past all the elevens in his way, never-mind that, she'll think about that later.

" **Forgive my late arrival your highness. We just broke though the enemy lines moments ago and raced here as soon as we could**." Dalton reported, sweaty from all the adrenaline and stress he was under.

"We?" Cornelia mouthed just as another 4 gloucesters and an additional 3 sunderlands cleared the jump and landed around her.

"Well I'm in shit right about now." Alleujah said to himself as he looked on as all seven machines trained their bazookas and rifles on him.

" **Hmm, it seems the tables have turned. I do believe it is your best interest to surrender**." Cornelia said, finally feeling like things were finally going their way again. Alleujah on the other hand, found himself in a pickle. He knew he wouldn't be able to take out all of them and still capture the Viceroy as ordered nor could he kill them all, one was bond to get a lucky show in or they'll just overwhelm him. He also couldn't afford to allow his machine to fall into their hands, the genius and technological innovations that went into it would spell disaster for them if the brits could reverse engineer it.

" **K-4, K-4 Come in!** " Alleujah heard Warwick over the radio.

" **This is K-4, go ahead since I'm about to be slaughtered**." Alleujah said as he stared down what could be his death as he eyes the console where he may have to type in the self-destruct codes.

" **Heads up, a mortar barrage is incoming, I repeat a mortar barrage is incoming, danger close**." Warwick reported to him, sounding like he was being rushed.

" **How danger close?** " Alleujah asked but before he could get an answer, the shells started to drop….all around them.

 **BOOM! BO!-B!-BOO!-BOO!-BOOM!-BOOM! BOOM!**

" **Oh, That's how close!** " Alleujah said, pissed as he held up his shield and put more power to the shielding lest he get blown to bits.

" **Artillery?!** " One pilot said he his machine was hit by a shell, lucky for them it didn't kill his knightmare but there was some serious damage.

" **Now of all times?!** " Dalton asked as he avoided another shell crater.

" **Take cover! Only a direct hit is lethal**." Cornelia ordered after seeing not although damaged, none of them had been taken out. As they moved to take whatever cover they could, this left them unknowingly vulnerable

" **K-4, retreat, I repeat, retreat. K-3 is in position**." Zero ordered, sounding like he was preoccupied with something which when he thinks about it, is most likely that white knightmare or the knight of round.

" **Roger that. [Sign]** " Alleujah said as he backed off and retreated, using the mortar fire as a cover as no-one would try and pursue him.

(With Tieria)

" **K-4, get ready**." Warwick commanded over his radio as Tieria stood on a ridge, further up in the mountains than the rest of his team but it was a good spot as any.

" **Roger. I have the target in my sights. Permission to fire?** " Tieria asked as he looked down his computerised scope, down nearly 1,000m at Cornelia and her men waved and weave through the mortar fire. He had buckles down his own knightmare and put more power into the shock absorbers as he was has set his gun to maximum power.

" **Permission granted, take the shot**." Warwick granted as he saw to it that they begin preparations for their withdrawal, there wasn't much left to do here as they had completed most of their objectives.

" **Copy that**." Tieria said as he saw the gage readings were good and that he had locked onto his target. " **Firing**." And with that, he fired the shot that would change the face of the area 11 rebellion for good.

(With Dalton)

'What is that? I sniper?...Oh-no!' Dalton asked as he noticed the shiny shape of a knightmare far out. It didn't take him long to realise its purpose. " **Princess Cornelia, look out!** " Dalton screamed as he pushed the Viceroy out of the line of fire and took the hit instead. The high powered blaster bolt from Tieria's MMI-M7S 100mm Blaster Cannon struck the right arm of Dalton's gloucester, tearing right through the appendage with ease before slamming into the main body and piecing the engine. As soon as the energy filler caught light it was too late as Dalton as tried to escape but his machine exploded just as he had pulled the ejection levels. His last thoughts were of his sons and how he was proud of the men they had become.

 **BOOM!**

In the seconds that followed, all was silent as no-one present could believe what they just saw, or rather none wanted to believe what they just saw.

.

.

.

" **ANDREAS!** " Cornelia screamed in anguish as his flaming wreck fall over and crashed into the dirt, even the cockpit block looked to ba ruined. She quickly through-out proper procedure and ordered the other pilots to pry open the nearly destroyed cockpit, praying that her dear friend and mentor was still alive.

(With the G1)

"We just lost General Dalton!" A controller relayed to them, sounding terrified and caught off guard at once.

"What! How!" An Officer asked, Dalton was the most experienced soldier they had, what could these damned numbers have that could defeat a man that has survived so long?

"Get the Viceroy out of there before she can be killed!" Euphemia ordered as she saw that they had next to nothing left to send her sister's way.

"Yes, your highness!"

(With Zero)

" **Sir, all units have finished preparations for out retreat**." Warwick reported over the radio as Zero and Nonette continued to clash.

" **What about the unit I sent to attack the G1?** " Zero asked as he blocked a strike to the chest before he fired off slash harkens right into hers to through her off.

" **They reported that the enemy G1 was surrounded by medical vehicles and civilians and opted to pull back**." Warwick responded over the sounds of Zero figured was them driving off.

" **That's a shame but I'm happy that they weren't trigger happy**." Zero said as he had his leg swiped from under him, causing him to fall over. Nonette was about to stab him right through and through if not for him rolling out of the way and quickly getting back up.

" **Another thing sir. K-4 fired in the Viceroy**." Warwick reported as Zero pulled out his rifle and started to fire on the Knight of round, forcing her back.

"… **.She is dead?** " Zero asked, he wasn't upset that his sister could be dead but he did want some answered before she bit the big one.

" **It appears not, one of her soldiers took the hit. The enemy quickly grabbed both the damaged cockpit block and the viceroy and are making a break for it**." Warwick told him.

" **Have the JLF made their escape yet?** " Zero asked as he dashed towards the knight and tried to cut off her arm but she parried the strike.

" **For the most part but some of their forward units are still engaged in combat, Tohdoh and his swords are among them**." Warwick reported as Nonette attempted to swipe his leg out again but he see it coming this time and jumped over the strike before landing a good punch to her head, denting the armour and hopefully messing with the main camera.

" **Send a wire to him, tell him that we're pulling out**." Zero said as he looked over to Kallen as she fought the white knightmare and saw that though both were moving like dancers, they were still at the stalemate.

" **Sir**." Warwick said as he cut the line.

" **Well this has been fun, knight of round but we all have schedules to keep and places to be so I bid you, adieu**." Zero said to his opponent as he jumped back and put away both his rifle and sword before he turned and fired off his harkens into the wall and climbed out.

" **I'm not letting you escape that easy!** " Nonette fired back as she quickly pulled her own rifle and fired at him but missed all of them before he got out and started to run.

" **My Lord!** " Rai said as he saw she started to give chase, leaving him to deal with the Guren by himself.

" **Keep the red one busy, I'm going after Zero. This ends today.** " Nonette ordered him as she disappeared from his visual view.

" **Yes, my lord**." Rai said as he continued to fight with the Guren.

(With Kallen)

"Damn, Zero wasn't kidding, this things no joke." Kallen said to herself as she tried to cut the Lancelot but the knightmare was just as quickly as she was and was able to avoid. "But if I can take it down now…" Kallen finished as she dodged some pot shots from the Lancelot.

" **Is that all!** " Kallen asked as she got in close again and went on the offensive, thought she was clearly thee better one at close quarters the white machine wasn't a pushover. She got the advantage when the Lancelot went for a slash and she caught the blade with her right hand.

" **Got yer!** " Kallen said as she activated the radiant wave surger and destroyed the blade. Sadly for her the Lancelot at seeing her move, quickly let go of the weapon before it pulled out another one. " **Dammit!** " How many did this guy have?

" **There goes your sword. Now you lose that head of yours!** " Kallen yelled as she tried to go for his head but the Lancelot fired off a shot from its own rifle. She was able to block the shot once more but in doing so, she fell off the ledge she had been lead to.

" **What?!** " Kallen screamed as she fell over 12m to the bottom the cliff.

"Damn, that hurt." She said to herself as she shock off the stars and dots in her vision.

" **Q-1, you alright?** " Zero asked her over the radio.

" **Yeah but the right hands a mess. We got to fix it**." Kallen replied as she looked over the surger and saw it was cracked and dented an a few places, she had seen enough movies growing up to know that trying to use it now may result in her death.

" **At least you're still alive, minor damages tend to happen in battle. Just move to your escape point. There's nothing more for us here**." Zero ordered her.

" **Y-yes sir**." Kallen replied before she closed the channel and started to drive towards her own escape route. 'I forgot that he cares.' She thought to herself as there were times when she was reminded that he genuinely cared for his men, that they weren't pawns on a board.

(With Zero)

" **Looks like you don't give up easy. Though that is to be expected from one of Charles' best attack dogs**." Zero egged as she held up his shield to absorb the brunt of the knight's fire.

" **Sticks and stone Zero. You'll have plenty of time to come up with more in your cell**." Nonette shot back as she kept on the chase, the woods around them whizzed by at the speeds they had been going for a while now, she was sure they were far away from the rest of the battle but she was determined to capture if not kill him.

" **It's cute that you think you can capture me but I got a little extra time on my hands so…** " Zero laughed as he looked down at his lightsaber and decided he could use the fun. " **I'll humour you**." He finished as he quickly fired off smoke grenades while releasing

" **What?** " "Smoke? No this is chaff gas. But I can still see him on my screens." Nonette said to herself as she slowed down and looked at all her screens, besides the infrared one, she had no real visibility to work with. 'Is this a trap? He isn't moving... What's your play here Zero?' She continued her line of thought as she gripped her controls, ready for anything.

Thought she wasn't ready for everything.

 **BAM!**

"What the-?!" She demanded as she felt an impact on top of her cockpit, something that should have been impossible. She wasn't given time to as the hatch was ripped off and soon followed by herself. She was harshly thrown to the ground. "Ow, fuck that hurts." Nonette complained as she got up slowly, already feeling the bruised if not broken bones in her arm from the rough landing.

"Believe me, it only gets worse." A voice answered her, one she wasn't expecting.

"Zero!" Nonette said as she saw him approaching her from the smoke, she wasn't going to give him a chance as she pulled out her pistol with her good arm but found herself unable to fire. In fact…

She couldn't move.

"None of that, I never said you could fight back." Zero taunted as he walked into her complete view with an arm raised. He pulled his fingers and thumb inwards a bit and she found herself not only being lifted half a metre in the air but also she was being choked by an invisible hand. She accidently dropped her pistol in the shock and she tried in vain to fight off the choking force.

"How?" She breathed out as she found it harder and harder to breathe.

"That is not important as I neither have the time nor patience to explain. Though your efforts this day were impressive as without you and that white knightmare, the Viceroy would be dead at my feet. Take pride in that you survived but the next time we meet, you may not so lucky." Zero told her without answering her question as the smoke started to clear

"Are you serious taking the time to play with her?" A new comer said, the voice was definitely female. Nonette didn't know there was anyone else her, did Zero lead her into a trap using himself as bait? Soon another person walked into the now clear area. The new comer turned out to be C.C. who walked up to them with her usual grace and disinterest.

'Who is she?' Nonette asked herself a she suspected she wasn't a black knight, there was no way Zero's people would wear standard issue Britannian straitjackets.

"I'm not even go ask how you knew where I was. Why are you here?" Zero asked her, apparently not even he knew why she was here, or maybe he was just trying to though her off.

"I was curious, you rarely show off and I figured this would be as good a time as any to see you do so." The women responded as she twirled around on her heels before she turned to face her.

"I didn't know you liked seeing me choke people. You some kind of sadist?" Zero asked her, tightening his grip on her neck.

"Not really, I don't care if you're choking someone, just that you're demonstrating a power that shouldn't be possible." The women replied as she inspected her, her gaze feeling like ice on her skin from how cold her gaze was, she really didn't care she was being choked, there was no joy, satisfaction, anger, remorse, her gaze was just…empty.

"You think this party trick is impressive, you don't know a thing." Zero asked her with an arrogant laugh before he raised his other hand towards her knightmare.

'What does he me-holy God.' She started to ask herself but stopped when she saw what he was doing.

He had lifted up her knightmare as well, only he lifted it up 3 metres in the air. The metal started to creak and moan as he started to apply the same sort of pressure to it as he was doing to her neck.

"This is but a glimpse of what I can do. The next time we meet, you may not live to speak of it." Zero stated as he kept on building up the pressure till the knightmare couldn't give anymore and blew up. Though not a single piece of shrapnel from it hit any of them, something she was sure was he doing. "Farewell, knight of round, till the next time." And with that, he used his hold on her to through her into a large boulder, knocking her out on impact.

"You three really are something else." C.C said, barely keeping her face clear of emotion though on the inside she was shocked to the core. Nunnally picking her up was one thing but having enough power to crush a knightmare with a single hand while choking a person with the other? There should have been no-way to do so.

"Come on, we have to meet up with the rest of the squad, before they start panicking." Zero told her as he walked back to his machine.

(With Tohdoh)

" **Coward, get back here!** " Chiba yelled as Guilford was able to break through them and started to race towards the Viceroy, though they did a number on him as he was missing his right arm and suffered some other, smaller instances of damage.

" **Don't follow!** " Tohdoh ordered as she watched the man jet off.

" **But sir-** " Chiba tried to object but he cut her off.

" **We accomplished everything we needed to. Our best course of actions is meeting up with the rest of our forces**." Tohdoh ordered as he turned to see the wrecked remains of the royal guard they had been fighting, most had been lucky and ejected before they were killed but this wasn't something that won't have repercussions.

" **Sir**." They all replied as she begun to retreat to meet up with the rest of the JLF.

" **Still, we kicked some but today, maybe it's a good thing that we go home and rest. Eight hours they say**." Asahina said as he was a great mood, he always wanted this type of battle, one where they had the advantage and boy did he feel good.

" **Knowing Senba, he may need ten**." Urabe added with a chuckle.

" **What was that, I may be old but that only means I've lived through more battles then you**." Senba argued with what they assumed was a smile, this wasn't the first time they poked at his age and it won't be the last.

" **Cut the chatter**." Tohdoh ordered them.

" **Sir!** "

(With Guilford)

" **Your highness, please be alright**." Guilford said to himself as he raced to her position.

" **Guilford**." Euphemia said over the radio.

" **Sub-Viceroy?** " Guilford asked, if she was calling him directly then it couldn't be good.

" **We've already send the retreat order to our forces**." Euphemia told him, sounding tired and sadden by the events of the day.

" **Beg your pardon?** " Guilford asked, since when did she give out orders?

"… **.We…We lost Dalton, and over 87% of our forces are either dead, wounded or missing, buried in the landslide. I wish not to be the bearer of bad news but…we lost this day**." Euphemia revealed, sounding close to tears as she told him the death of a dear friend and confidant.

" **Ho-how is the Viceroy dealing with all this?** " As much as he wanted to cry, he also needed to know how his princess was dealing with this, she had known the man longer than the both of them and saw him as an uncle.

(With the G1)

" **Poorly…to say the least**." Euphemia answered with tears in her eyes as she watch a monitor of the main knightmare bay, where her sister had to be dragged from her cockpit kicking and screaming at them to go back out and kill Zero. " **The remainder of our forces are falling back cautiously, you should join up with them, before the JLF or Black Knights decide your easy pickings.** " She softly ordered him before she cut the line and fall down into the throne like command seat, emotionally and mentally exhausted. 'Oh sister...'

" **Yes, your highness**." Guilford said just as the channel cut. Leaving him in silence as he banged his fist against the arm rest. 'Dammit Andreas! You promised, you promised to live to see retirement you scared faced buffoon!'

.

.

(Hours later)

"Damn, we did it!"

"We beat back Cornelia!"

"Not even those Euros could do that!"

'They sure look like to be enjoying this.' Kallen thought to herself as she watched as the foot soldiers and other members of the BK celebrated their win. It was late afternoon and the sun was already setting, leaving the mountain range to be painted orange with the setting rays of light.

"It's because Kallen," Lockon started, as he if he could read minds. "It's not every day that one hands the Britannians a defeat, and certainly not one as big as this." He finished as he gestured over the area they just left over the hills and cliffs, smoke was still rising from the abandoned battlefield, showing them just how much machines had been wrecked.

"That is true, most victories against the empire are purely diplomatic as their military is the strongest of the three super-powers." Tieria said as he walked over to the small group, Alleujah and Wang right behind him.

"But we won, didn't we?" Kallen asked him, sounding both confused and concerned at his words.

"I believe that Tieria means to say that we shouldn't let this victory go to our heads, pride comes before the fall is that they say." Zero said as he walked over to them, all of them saluting him once he came to a stop.

"Speaking of fall, did Warwick find out what happen to E-Squad 3?" Lockon asked their masked leader.

"E-Squad?" Kallen whispered to Wang.

"It was a unit of 4 tanks, they disappeared sometime during the battle. It's how Dalton and his men got through." The elder girl explained to her.

"Oh."

"No he didn't, their trackers died around 30km north east of here. However got to them is gone now." Zero told him, sounding angry that some-one was able to get the drop on his men and got away with it.

"Still, I kinds wish we didn't loss as many people." Alleujah said as he was dreading he reports they'll soon receive on how many they lost.

"That's a harsh reality of war my friend, no-one is immortal. No-one of invincible." Zero told him as he laid a hand on his shoulder and gave a small squeeze. At his words however, Wang laughed.

"That's a riot coming from you." She said as she couldn't imagine anything beating him, not their leader.

"If only, I'm no God Liu Mei , I bleed red just like everyone else here." Zero told them with a tone of a man 20 years his senior, showing off that wisdom before he shook his head and turned to face the celebrating soldiers. "Let's pack up. I want to be out of these mountains by daybreak." He ordered.

(With Guilford)

"Is she alright?" Guilford asked the doctor. He and Euphemia had spent most of the afternoon getting a handle of the mess they found themselves in and only now found time to approach the G1's doctors on the condition of Cornelia.

"We had to administer a small dose of sedative to calm her down but yes. She suffered no injuries and was only tired and panicked." The doctor told them as he led them into the private med bay where Cornelia was sleeping on the bed. Her quarters was guarded by 4 soldiers so Guilford wasn't too uncomfortable leaving them to watch her.

"I never imagined…" Guilford said as he squeezed his fist in anger, nearly tearing up at that thought. 'If only I got there in time, Dalton.'

"Dame Enneagram was a different story on the other hand." The doctor continued when he saw the train of thought Guilford was going down and decided to change topics.

"How so?" Euphemia asked, speaking up for the first time in the conversation.

"She was found by some retreating forces who followed her IFF to its last known location. Her knightmare had been totalled. Damaged beyond repair. She was however found outside if it by a rock. She has a concussion and two cracked ribs." The doctor told them as he read through his notes on the matter, sounding just as confused as the crew that inspected her machine.

"Why was she outside her knightmare?" Euphemia asked, that was strange behaviour for a knight of round, double for Nonette.

"We don't know but we do know that her cockpit block was missing the hatch. From the primarily examinations we know that it was ripped off the hinges with extreme force." The man revealed to them, the part that made next to no sense to him with all his years of experience as a battlefield medic.

"A Knightmare?" Guilford asked, jumping to the most logical conclusion, thought he was way off base.

"Doesn't look that way, there were no marks to indicate anything touch it as it was ripped off. It was almost as if…" The doctor started but feel short mid-way, looking like he was trying to find the right words for this but Euphemia already had them.

"It was pulled off by an invisible force." The princess said as chills run down her back, this all sounded very…very familiar.

"You don't think, Zero?" Guilford asked, sounded both enraged and scared. Enraged because he was getting sick and tired of this terrorist running amok and scared because he wasn't too confident he could kill him if half the things they know about him are true.

"It matches up with the impossible things I saw him do during the hotel jacking." Euphemia told as him as they both walked out of the medical bay and headed towards their stations.

"And because of the mess he made of our forces, both he and the Japan Liberation Front slipped away in the confusion." Guilford said as they had found evidence pointing to both parties making a break for it when the chance presented itself.

"And what of the Lancelot?" Euphemia asked, the last thing they needed was news that even their trump card was wrecked, Schneizel would not be pleased at all and the last thing she wanted was to disappoint him.

"It returned to base with some damage but for the most part, it's fine." Guildford, thankfully gave her some good news as he had seen to it that the Lancelot was checked over three separate times and most of the damage was nothing to worry about, the Earl had already assured him that he would have it ready again in three days at most. He felt bad for the crew though as they didn't seem too eager to pull two all-nighters.

"That's a relief, there has been enough death this day." Euphemia breathed a sigh of relief at the news as they came to a corner where they had to part ways.

"Yes, there has." Guilford responded as he turned to face her and bowed. "Now if you would excuse me your highness but I need to get back to my duties." He said as he waited to be excused.

"You do that, I shall not keep you." She gave such permission and watched as he walked away, knowing that her sister's situation was weighing heavily on his soul. Though she had another matter on her mind at present. 'Brother, if it's you under that mask. I need to see you, to speak with you. This madness must end…before it's too late.' She prayed as she could see that if things continued down the path they were…

Blood will truly flow like a river.

(At an unknown location)

"Did you get it?" A young looking child with shin length blonde hair said over a phone line, he was seated on a large stone throne in a darken room.

" _Yes director, we were able to capture three of the terrorist tanks with relatively minor damage. Though none of the crews survived_." The person they were talking to responded.

"That's a shame but not important right now, take it over to one of our black sites for study. If it's anything like those knightmares of theirs, it'll have some juicy secrets to unlock." The 'child' responded, sounding giddy at the prospect of tearing open those MBTs and getting his hands on their secrets for his own uses.

" _Yes director it will be done_." And with that, the line was cut.

"There's a new player on the board is there?" The 'child said again as he stood up and walked over to a wall where he pressed a button to reveal that the wall could slide open. "It makes no difference, no-one can be allowed to interfere with Charles and I's plans, no-one." The boy said as he looked over his vast underground complex brimming with life, but there was something that appeared to be consistent no matter where you look. Whether it be on their clothes, on building, on the sides of the underground trains or visible in their eyes.

The red ominous glow…and geass.

 **And that it that, the Narita arc is officially over and done with, leaving me with the chance to move on from this and do other stuff.**

 **Like always, please like, favourite and follow me and if you could be so kind, leave a review.**


	20. Fallen Goddess weeps

**The Narita arc is over and done with, now I can move on. Now, I've already planned out most of the story line for this story that will serve as the season 1 or R1 if you prefer so no, he won't be taking the fight to the America's or even mainland Europe just yet. That will come after some much needed development. This chapter will be a sort of break from all the action and won't dive too much into the main story but more into how the characters are dealing with the aftermath of Narita. As you all already know, Lulu isn't responsible for the death of Joseph and he is already helping Shirley with that but now I find myself at an impasse. Who should I ship Shirley with if I ship her with anyone?  
I love her character and how clumsy she can be and I've always shipped her with Lelouch more than Kallen and C.C due to the fact he admits in a offish way that he does(or rather did if you didn't see the Resurrection movie nor the sings pointing to his survival after Requiem) love the girl. He also knew her much longer than he did the other two and even when the truth of his identity as Zero was revealed to her, she still chose to shoot Villetta to protect him from being captured and/or killed. C.C never really has this reaction as she for the most part was just protecting her contractor's life, nothing more and Kallen's reaction was more….run and leave him to Suzaku's mercy.  
Shirley's a sweet and kind person who matches Euphemia in terms of kindness and belief in human kindness(which is why I will never forgive Rolo for killing her). Honestly I want her to have that happy ending. So, should I:**

 **Not ship her with anyone and leave it at that?**

 **Ship her with an off-screen character and leave it at that?**

 **Ship her with Lelouch in a one sided relationship till she accepts he'll never be with her.**

 **Ship with Lelouch where she joins in on what her and Reyla have and give the lad a small harem(He's of royal blood, his daddy had 108 consorts and God knows how many his grandfather had, the boy wouldn't be the first or last in his family to have such.**

 **And speaking of harems, I have a feeling Kaguya would want in because of her precious 'Zero-sama' and because it's implied she had a crash on Lelouch when they were younger, prior to the war. The reasoning for that would be two fold.  
(1) It will really add some spice to his life as it'll be like marrying Milly and will certainly make things interesting.  
(2) It would help in the political side of things as he'll need a stable connection to the people of Earth, yes he of earth birth but he was ousted by his father which effectively left him and his sister stateless and spent almost a decade in space training with aliens on other worlds and solar systems, making him a sort of immigrant. He knows sooner or later that he'll either be found out or have to reveal himself on his own terms, in which case what better way to ensure he a Earthling then marry into a high standing earth family(The Sumeragi clan)**

 **Please leave your thoughts and opinions in a review when you're done.**

* * *

 **Chapter 20: Fallen Goddess weeps**

 **11** **th** **September 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

 **Viceroy Imperial Palace**

(With Euphemia)

"Sub-viceroy, forgive for asking but…" One of the government officials tried to speak but stopped midway. It had been an exhausting week for the colonial government as news of their defeat and Zero's appearance at Narita leaked to the press which not only showed the world that Zero was getting more bold and successful but also led to more terrorist activity in Area 11 itself.

"Speak up." Euphemia said as she massaged her forehead to help with her headache. She along with Nonette and Guilford had called a meeting to discuss the latest state of affairs, afterwards…they-(Cornelia)-would have to contact the emperor to inform him of such.

"Where is Viceroy Cornelia, should she not be present for this meeting?" Another, braver government worker asked as it was quite clear that the viceroy was absent.

"Her highness is busy reorganising our forces to cover any gaps that may be present at present, till she is finished, I shall take notes on all the meetings she would otherwise attend and pass them along to her." Guilford answered the question crisply, though the real reason was because Cornelia wasn't dealing with Andreas's death all that well, Nonette already caught her with more than a few bottles of brandy. It was concerning as she never drank in the first place.

"Y-yes of course." The minister replied as he wipe away sweat from his face.

"What were our losses at Narita? I believe these past few days have been more than enough time for you to account for them." Nonette asked, still wearing a cast and having some slight bandages covering her forehead.

"They were…not good, Sub-viceroy." The local defence minister replied as he stood up, though she wondered of this fast tub of lad had ever even held a gun, let alone served in the military. "Please note that we are still pulling men and machine from the landslide effected areas so these numbers are expected to rise." He started before he just put his notes down and reached for the projector remote. "I believe things will go faster I merely showed you the numbers, my lord."

 _Infantry: 720 –512 killed. 123 injured  
APCs: 45 – 16 Destroyed, 18 damaged  
IFVs: 25 – All lost  
Knightmares: 120 – 66 destroyed, 35 damaged  
Tanks: 45 – 27 destroyed, 9 damaged  
Mobile Artillery: 35 – 3 Destroyed, 9 damaged_

"You mean we suffered such losses? How?" The finance minister asked, appalled they suffered such losses, while Euphemia had to hold back the tears as she read through the reports of confirmed KIA, all those families that lost their sons and daughters.

"This makes the whole Shinjuku affair look tame! How could rebels inflict such damage?" Another yelled as she banged her fist onto the table.

"Because you soft skinned fools," Nonette started as she glared at all of them. "The enemy was not only prepared for use but is only growing stronger with each successful attack." She finished as the report vanished from the screen and in its place, another one detailing all the smaller annoyances sprouting up across the country.

"What do you mean, Dame Enneagram?" Euphemia asked, was there a pattern they hadn't noticed yet?

"I've had some time to go over how the battle played out and it's clear that not only did the Japan Liberation Front know we were coming but they must have joined up with the Black Knights to form a surprise attack. That landslide was too convenient to not have been caused by either then or Zero. Also," The knight of nine explained as she thought back to how all the factors aligned in Zero's favour, it was too fitting. "The royal guard went up against machines that we know are only produced by the Black Knights but they were being presumably operated by Tohdoh and his four top lieutenants. If this is true, it means that they had been an alliance for so long that they had time to ship over four of their machines without us knowing." She concluded, they didn't know much about the Black Knights internal operations or doctrine outside Zero himself revealed but they did know that they didn't supply their tech to any other fraction, and their gear didn't match up with the design or military doctrines of any other nation so outside aid of such nature had to be ruled out.

"Because of that unexpected cooperation, both the Black Knights and the Japan Liberation front were able to escape. The JLF is weaken yes, but not to the degree we hoped." Guilford added as their latest reports a disturbing high number of suspected JLF members who got out of there.

"B-but my lord, surely they'll be much less of a threat without their man base." The minister of Public relations and Information-(propaganda)-asked.

"Who's to say Zero doesn't give them one, or maybe they join together. That'll give the Black Knights a personal boast of an expected 900 people!" Another debunked that thought after seeing the numbers himself, as it stood they already had evidence suggesting the masked menace commanded a force of over 1,200 as is!

"And there's also the attack on the air strip." Euphemia said as she turned her attention to her sister's knight. "How many did we lose there?"

"Your highness, it was much worse. Almost all personal on site are either dead or wounded. Around 76 were able to survive without major injuries but we lost all 36 Fighters and 24 VTOLs stationed there." Guilford grimly reported as he had taken time to go see the air strip himself. They were still dealing with fires when he showed up a day afterwards.

"Dammit." Nonette cursed as she recalled that air strip had over 400 people working on site, only 76 surviving painted a pretty one-sided assault. "Have the Tokyo garrison conduct extra patrols to make up for the loss of an airstrip," She commanded as she knew they needed to plug the holes in their air defence strategy, she was really starting to hate the fact that they were only 6 military airstrip in central Honshu, if they lost another, they would be forced to commandeer a civilian airport. "How long until it's back online?"

"It will take some time, around a month to repair the damage to a point where it would be operational again but it'll take at least 3 months before it's restored to its former glory." The minister of public works said as his department was already preparing to send in construction workers.

"Also from the accounts of the surviving, it appears that the Black Knights who attacked them were led by this machine." Guilford thought aloud as he showed them footage recovered from a wrecked sunderland. The picture quality was terrible but it was clear enough to make out the type of machine that destroyed this knightmare in particular.

"It's the same as Zero's." Euphemia said as she gazed upon the weapon of destruction and death Zero had brought upon their heads.

"Yes, but a different colour. It must he another high ranking officer, maybe one of Zero's elite. Nonette theorized as she knew Zero wasn't anywhere near the air strip when it was attacked, and going by all complex the machine looked compared to the other models the Bk fielded, it was safe to assume that like the Lancelot, they were rare or difficult to build and maintain.

"Another thing their report stats is that some of the aircraft were stolen by the Black Knights. We believe the enemy has around 7 Ground attack aircraft and 5 VTOLs." Guilford finished his report.

"So Zero's now stealing military hardware is he?" Nonette said as she took in this new information. "He must be planning something big in the future. Send word to Area 12. Have them send in additional knightmares and supplies. This mess is going to be a large one." She finished as she started to massage her own head as this was really turning into a big mess.

"The occupation government is partly to blame for this mess." Guilford said as he turned his gaze onto the non-military personal present. "You have done next to nothing about Area 11's subways and mining railways. In the ghettos they falsify the registries and property deeds as the rebellion spreads unchallenged." He said as the light bounced off his eyes at an angle that made him seem much more threatening.

"The subway tunnels stretch over all the country, we can't just fill them all in, that'll cost over twice our yearly budget, leaving nothing in the way of government and defence spending." The finance minister retorted.

"Which the terrorists are using as strike bases and escape routes!" the knight yelled back, most likely using them as vents for his anger and grief over the death of Andreas.

"But sir, Prince Clovis instructed us." The finance minister started but paused when he caught Euphemia's eyes on him. "He said that such actions would only fuel the rebellion, giving the Chinese Federation an excuse to attack."

"They already got their excuse, Zero is growing stronger and bolder by the day. They already announced that they will conducting naval exercises in the Sea of Japan." Euphemia replied as she brought up the next issue they had to deal with.

"How many vessels are we looking at here?" Someone asked.

"From their statement, they say around 5 destroyers, 3 corvettes, 6 frigates and 2 helicopter carriers but knowing them, they'll be more than that for sure." Nonette replied as only an idiot would actually take the federation's word as worth the data they used to send it to them.

"That'll put western Honshu at risk of invasion." Guilford summarized as such a force, though relatively small was no laughing matter.

"I'm afraid so if since the Viceroy is currently unavailable, I shall make the decision to bolster out eastern defences. Have another 4 Destroyers join the Sea of Japan flotilla, along with 13 Patrol boats." Euphemia ordered as she read through what available ships they could spare to deter the federation from any…aggressive actions.

"Yes Sub-Viceroy."

* * *

(With the 6 Houses of Kyoto at the same time)

"So Zero's intervention was successful?" One of the six members asked as they all sat down to discuss matters of late.

"Yes, according to Genbu's report, the Japan Liberation Front suffered around 32% casualties." Kirihara confirmed as he laid down the report the JLF had sent in.

"Hmm, so it seems that Zero knew what he was doing." Another member said, sounding both sceptical but pleased at the same time. "And what of the Black Knights, what were their losses?" The member inquired. Imagining their numbers must have taken a huge hit.

"Genbu's doesn't know but he believes there were lighter than his own, making them the force which suffered the least amount of losses." Kirihara replied, sounding like he didn't think they suffered too many losses to worry about.

"Yes and word has already spread to the ghettos and Britannian populace. It was quite amusing watching the news anchors play off the colonials defeat as mothing more than 'cheap tricks' and 'human wave tactics'." Another member laughed as they all recall seeing how the news networks all desperately tried to downplay this massive defeat as nothing more than a 'cowardly attack in a small imperial outpost'. Though it was clear it wasn't doing much to hide the truth.

"Though is obvious to the people of Japan that this was our victory. Our agents in the ghettos report that over 500 more people wish to join up with the Black Knights in Kanto alone. Central Japan has shown about 5,200 who show interest." Kaguya added to the conversation. As it stood at present, the Black Knights already had over 3,000 members across Honshu, these kinds of hopeful recruitment numbers would surely be a boon.

"And the JLF?" The first member asked.

"It's lower, in Kanto, only about 220 and in the whole of central Japan, about 3,500." Kaguya answered as although the JLF was still standing, their lack of success and the attack on their main base had been less than helpful for them. The JF had the higher personal numbers with around 5,300 but they were as capable.

"So it seems that the JLF's time in the sun as the premiere resistance group is at an end. The people are placing more of their faith in Zero now." Another member said gravely, he was still on the fence when it come to their masked alley but he also couldn't argue with results. His personal duel with a knight of round and subsequent victory over her was quite the piece of news.

"Even so, the JLF aren't done yet, they're still strong, Tohdoh is still fighting." One of them spoke out.

"Yes," Kirihara started as he took a sip of tea. "Those custom knightmares the Black Knights supplied, GINNs I believe proved to be quite the formidable weapons from the report. To think that Zero has dozens of them and is manufacturing more." It was obvious to the six houses that Zero had a factory producing his fraction's signature machines but as to where it was or what was its production rates, they did not know. All they did now that the Black Knights already fielded an estimated 440 of them.

"He may need help with that." Kaguya said from her curtained seat. Gaining the attention of the other 5.

"What do you mean? We've been assisting them for some time as is. We even sent him the Guren Mk II and are going to increase the shipments of supplies." One member asked her. Kyoto was already supplying medical supplies and munitions to the Black Knights.

"I mean we could assist him by taking some of the workload. We could offer to start producing GINNs ourselves, provided he grants us the blueprints." Kaguya explained as they definitely has much more factories under their control then whatever Zero had, though there was the problem of whether or not those factories were equipped to build such equipment.

"And what makes you think he'll give up such secrets? We don't even know his real identity, never mind that of this 'SK'." Another member said as unlike the other groups, they knew only what Zero released to be known.

"Because," She started, the light granting her a gleam to her unseen eyes. "I have a feeling that Zero is the kind of man who likes allies who show initiative and potential."

* * *

(At Ashford)

"Aright missy, what's the problem? Constipated? Your monthly?" Milly asked Shirley out of the blue. The three girls which included Nina were seated in the council room going over some paperwork. The girl she was talking to had been rather quiet as of late.

"Wha! No! Tt's just," Shirley tried to deny but when she saw that Milly wasn't buying it, she caved. "Things have been lonely around here."

"Yes, I can see where you coming from." Milly said with a small understanding smile. "Kallen had to take some sick leave days, Rivalz has to work extra hours at his uncle's bar, Lelouch is out with work and Suzaku had to travel to see some relatives. That Narita stuff really got them concerned for him." Milly told her, though she didn't buy the last bit about what Lelouch and Suzaku were really up to since she knew they were BK members but she couldn't exactly tell Shirley that.

"It wouldn't be so bad if Lulu was here?" Shirley moaned as she looked over the piles of paperwork in front of her, they had already seen how fast and effectively the black haired boy could get through such matters.

"Oh, oh?" Milly started, she knew what the girl was referring to but she also saw a chance to tease her some more. "Do I ears deceive me?" As she reached her hand to her ear as if she was trying to increase her hearing. "Little miss hearts and rainbows has a nickname for her crush, a crush who is a married man?" She scandalously asked.

"What! NO! I don't have a crush on him! Even if he is smart, funny, mysterious and caring, I don't have crush." Shirley strongly denied at first and faltering somewhat in the middle before she went strong once more.

"Sure you don't. Your secrets safe with me, don't worry." Milly teased as Nina reached for a phone and saw something, maybe a message as she quickly gathered her things and left the room after bidding both a goodbye.

"I'm serious, I can't do that to them, Reyla and him are like, super in love and have a child on the way!" Shirley yelled with red cheeks.

"Oh so the problem is 'The Other Women' is it?" Milly counted, using the age old subplot of any drama script.

"Don't say it like that, it makes it sound bad…I mean I don't know what you're talking about!" Shirley eventually gave up trying to argue with her blonde friend and just fell back into her seat.

"Hahahaha! Sorry about that but you've been so easy to mess with ever since high school." The council president apologised as she wiped away the tear of joy from her eye before she got serious. "But for real, you should take to them about this, it's not healthy to just hold in your emotions like this, remember what I was like when I married Lloyd?" Milly asked her, making the girl recall how…angry, yes angry the blonde was around that time, it was equally scary when she openly had an argument with her mother about it over the phone during an history class, the curse words she used….

"Point taken. But…" Shirley said but stopped as she had read enough romance novels to know what she was thinking of was extremely hard to pull off.

"I know that it isn't an easy thing to talk about but the fact is, you care for Lulu. So talk to them." Milly said as she got up from her own seat and made her way to the exit. "If nothing else, it'll mean that Reyla won't have to ruin her figure to give the little one a sibling." And with that, she left the room for the bathroom. Though her last comment was rather lewd and uncalled for, the blonde wasn't wrong in her words. Shirley thought over the advice she got before she smiled to herself.

"….Thanks Milly," She whispered as she wiped away some tears that had started to form. "Thanks a lot."

* * *

(With The Black Knights)

"Kyoto praised us for using the Guren Mk II so well. As per the deal we made with them, they'll start sending us 30% more medical supplies for our own uses and for public distribution in the ghettos." Warwick reported as he read out the last of the after mission report to the groups which was made up of S.K, Zero, the Zero Squad, L.M and her over faithful bodyguard, Akito. They were located in their central command hub for all Kanto operations.

"Yes but there was still the matter of that white knightmare, I believe our sources have found its name to be 'Lancelot'." Oscar said as he presented pictures of the before mentioned machine onto the big screen for them to all see.

"Named after a knight of Arthurian legend, pretentious much?" L.M. asked with a frown.

"That's how the Britannians work, always showing off that British heritage of theirs." S.K. explained with a small smirk as he could recall a dozen things that brits did to help keep their heritage alive.

"Irrelevant," Tierra cut them all off with a bored look on his face, of course he had already read the report. "The fact of the matter was we were able to deal a heavy blow to the occupational forces and kill a two high ranking generals." He stated as the screen charged to show the news report telling of the 'tragic' passing of Andreas Dalton and Malcom Alex who were 'tricked by underhanded and cowardly tactics'. "That isn't something that they'll just bounce back from." He finished as the imperial hadn't lost someone of Dalton rank and experience in battle for the last 8 years.

"Tierra is right, we have done well by our word and it's only fitting that Kyoto recognised us for such." Warwick agreed with their leader as he took his seat again.

"By that as it may, I'm more worried about the federation's sudden declaration for a naval exercise." Alleujah said as the screen changed to show the Federation's announcement for a 'naval exercise' in the Sea of Japan.

"Yes, that is a problem," Oscar agreed before he turned to Leila. "What has our spies in Pusan been able to dig up?"

"That the federation's statement was a load of BS for one thing. From what naval activity and chatter they picked up, the federation is deploying a larger force then they said, with around 7 destroyers and 9 frigates along with an unmentioned force of around heavy 14 landing craft." She said as she took out reports and handed a copy to each of them. Needless to say, the size of the naval force was concerning to say the least.

"Wait, they actually think they can invade and win?" Kallen asked them all, sure she knew the dangers of the federation as even before Britannia invaded, the two nations were at constant odds.

"This is the eunuchs Kōzuki, they aren't exactly known for being the smartest bunch in China, but certainly the greediest." Liu Mei explained to her, she knew how her former government treated the lesser privileged.

"Yeah, it's no secret among the high ranking members of the federation government that they wanted a piece of Japan for themselves. They only never invaded because they thought the other two would step in." Zero stated as that was once the common belief, that no one super power could try and start something because the other two would surely act to keep them in check in order to preserve the power balance between the three.

"Except that didn't happen and when Britannia invaded, the bureaucrats of the EU took too damn long to decide on anything and the federation was too slow to mobilize." Lockon said with a bite as the EU was too riddled with greed and incompetence to the point, it made the Oligarchy of the Federation and Absolute Monarchy of the Empire look much more appealing then democracy.

"Yeah, by the time those two so called 'superpowers' had ben amassed the troops needed, the Britannians had already secured control of both the Sea of Japan, East China Sea and the coastal areas of the country, any attack even if successful would have been extremely bloody." SK added with an unseen sneer as he could remember his country burning while the world watched.

"Which lead them all the sit down and decide how to divide up the spoils of war to keep the tension riddled peace we find ourselves in." Zero finished as he recalled watching the numerous conferences held in Geneva between the three superpowers to decide how the sakuradite would be distributed, all of which happened with no even a single Japanese official in the room, they never had a say.

"Speaking of," Akito spoke up. "Our spies in Tananarive(Antananarivo) were able to confirm your suspicions."

"So Neville Chamberlin is really losing face." Lockon asked them.

"Yes, his stance of non-aggression has only angered the African colonies as he has done nothing to stop continued Britannian invasions and subsequent occupations of the continent. Both South Africa and Madagascar are willing to aid us so long as we supply troops and equipment." Akito explained to them the good news, having such allies for raw materials and productions purposes were always a good thing.

"It's a shame we already have a smooth source of imports but having allies never really hurts anyone." Liu Mei said as she read through the report on all their Japan based operations.

"Yes and having control over the coal fields of South Africa would grant us much influence over the other southern African countries as their main source of power will be under us." Zero added to the positive reactions.

"Don't we think you're reaching too far? We're thousands of kilometres away from the closest African country." Kallen asked as it seemed a littler far off, how would they even transport men and supplies between them?

"I suppose your right." Zero conceded the point to her. "What's the word on India? They're willing to play ball?"

"They're still stalling. It'll be some time before we can convince them." Warwick answered with a frown as he was expecting results by now.

"And if they wait too long, they'll find themselves under Britannian occupation as well. They certainly have a way into the Indian ocean and Indian subcontinent." Alleujah said as he looked over a map of Eurasia and saw that with the empire's recent addition of the MEF, they could certainly do it.

"How long would it even take them?" Kallen asked their leader.

"If we give them a fighting chance, and the Britannian chose to invade through neutral Iran into Pakistan. I'll say four to six months" Zero laid out on the table the bare facts, which as much as it was cruel, he wasn't wrong.

"And if the brits decide to try their luck with a naval assault?" Oscar asked further, they needed a good time frame to work with here.

"It'll end much faster…2 mouths, at best." Zero replied after taking a moment to think it over.

"I'm guessing a knight of round would lead the charge since Cornelia is still trying to end her dance with us?" SK asked as he couldn't see such a rapid advance without a knight of round leading the charge.

"Correct, if the Federation losses the research, development and factories of the MZI-(Militarized Zone of India)-of India, their military complex would collapse for the most part, and without a single loyal armed force to keep the starving and angry people in line, rebellions and uprisings will tear the federation apart. By the time the brits reach their capital, the federation would have long since imploded." Zero described to the small gathering as he switched out the pictures of screen with a map of the federation, showing all the 'member' states as well as a list of failed uprisings and large scale unrest in the last 14 years, needless to say there were over two dozen different incidents as far flung Manila, Colombo and Ashgabat.

"Still, have all our shipments from mainland Eurasia avoid the East China Sea and Sea of Japan." SK ordered Lockon as he wanted to play this cautiously and prevent their shipping from being spotted, they had gone through a lot of trouble to ensure that no-one knew the fact they had their own shipping and wished for that to stay a need-to-know secret.

"Sir." Lockon confirmed as he took out his tablet and made a reminder for that.

"By the way," LM said as she took out a finely sealed letter and passed it over to their leader. "We received a letter from Kyoto, they urgently request a meeting, face to face."

"So they finally got tired of the smoke and mirrors…" Zero mused to himself aloud, honestly he would have thought those old cogs would have demanded this sooner, clearly they have more patience then he gave them credit for. "Very well, have them send us a suitable date, let them think they'll in control, at least for now."

"Now onto other matter, such as **Operation: Island Getaway**." Zero said as the screen changed once more to show something the Britannians would never see them having.

Blueprints for submarines capable of carrying, launching and retrieving knightmares and fighter…at sea.

* * *

 **13** **th** **September 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

 **Viceroy Imperial Palace**

"Viceroy…"Guildford called out as he knocked on Cornelia's bed quarters door. "You Highness, it's Guilford, may I enter?" He asked again, hoping for a response as he hadn't seen her in days and had been told by the staff that she had not left her quarters ever since they got back from Narita.

.

.

.

"I'm coming in, please excuse my rudeness." Guilford eventually worked up the nerve to enter. He used his spare key to open the door and opened the door and closed it behind him, no sense in letting others see her in frail state. He turned to face her and nearly had a heart attack when he saw her laying on the bed half naked holding a wine bottle, the floor next to the bed having other empty bottles all over the place.

"Your highness!" Guilford yelled in concern as he ran over to her bedside and help her up.

"Just leave me Guilford." Cornelia told in a weak and broken sounding tone, something that tore his heart apart.

"I cannot follow such a request, your highness." He said as he held fast and didn't budge. "How much have you had, I thought Lay Nonette confiscated all the palace liquor?" He asked/demanded her as Nonette said she did a full sweep of the room and cleared the room of such vices.

"Why does that concern you?" Cornelia asked him with an angry glare. So she was drunk enough to be openly depressed but sober enough to still have some semblance of royal pride.

"Because your safety and wellbeing are my primary concern, please you cannot go on like this." Guilford replied as he gently took the bottle from her hand and laid her to the bathroom so they could clean her up a bit. The entire time she remained silent as Guilford handed her some meds to help with the hangover come morning and helped he clean her face.

.

.

.

"Your hig-!" He tried to start the conversation again as she sat by the office desk but she cut him off.

"I let it go to my head." Cornelia said out of the blue as she gazed out the reinforced window onto the settlement.

"Beg your pardon?" Guilford asked her, he didn't know what she was referring to but the fact she was talking was a good sign on its own.

"All the victories…the conquest….the glory…all of it. I let that damned title of 'Goddess of Victory' inflate my ego and stroke my pride. I've spent almost every waking moment going over that battle." She admitted to herself as her eyes started to moisten at the thought.

"Please your high-!" Guilford tried to intervene to left her spirits but she wasn't listening to him.

"And each and every time, I saw that we, no…I could have done better." She said as she recalled all the flaws she made. "Brought more troops, increase reconnaissance around the area, or even made a better plan to account for a chance Zero would have showed up. But I didn't, and for my folly and arrogance, my men, men I've lead for years through thick and thin, rain or shine – paid the price with their lives." She finished with tears in her eyes, too broken to care that she was showing weakness, she couldn't help it.

"I see him every knight," She said through her quiet sobs. "Andreas, he was one of the good ones, he only ever saw potential and results, nothing more, nothing less. He was the first one to see me for my skill, not my birth." She said with a sad laugh as she remembered how he didn't give two shits that she was royalty during both training and her rookie days, hell she once threaten to have him killed fir giving her 10 laps around the track for being late for roll-call, his response?

Double the laps around the track field.

"Princess…" Guilford started but paused as he couldn't really find the right words to say.

"He was the best mentor I could have asked for, he was the only one, the only one!" Cornelia yelled at him as she held up one finger in emphasise. "You would dare to insult royalty and he would criticise and punish me like any other recruit but more than anything… [sob], he was like the father I always wanted!" Cornelia finally admitted as she cried. Even though Guilford knew little of the Emperor as a father and person, he knew enough to know he was lacking in the father department, leaving the parenting of his many children to their mothers and other staff.

"Cornelia…" Guilford said as he moved in and gave her a hug, forgoing protocol in all its nature and just being what she needed right now.

A friend so she may have a shoulder to cry on.

"I was so jealous of his boys, they had such a dedicated, loving father who took them all in out of the kindness of his heart and…and…." Cornelia went one, baring her wounded heart to the glasses sporting knight. "I was jealous of them! What's wrong with me?!" She eventually screamed in emotional confusion as she held onto him like he would disappear if she didn't.

"There is nothing wrong in seeking love Cornelia, we all yearn for the soft touch of another. Dalton was one of the best." Guildford soothed her as she rubbed her back in an effort to comfort her.

"Now he's gone…and those orphaned boys he took in are orphans again." Cornelia said through her sobs as she pictured their faces when they found out their father wasn't going to come home with them, that he was gone. "He's dead, because of me…"

"It is not your fault!" Now Guilford couldn't let her continue, his sudden shooting catching the princess off guard as she looked in in the eye with a surprise gleam in her own. "Dalton death was a tragedy but a tragedy that I know his boys and more importantly, YOU!" He said as he pointed to her heart, to her. "Will make it through, he trained the best and I know that all of you will pull through, just like he would have wanted." HE said with absolute confidence in her.

"Guilford…" Cornelia uttered in slight awe as his words sunk in.

"His death does not fall onto your head, but the man who pulled the trigger." Guilford went one as his eyes harden to what he was about to say next. "Zero and his men will pay for this." At the mention of the masked man's name, Cornelia body stiffened, as if a pale of water had just been thrown over her head. She could see it now, how that bastard all but pulled the trigger that robbed her a great friend.

"They will, I make sure they burn for this." Cornelia said in silent fury as she grasped onto where she would want Zero to appear right, so that she could slowly strangle him to death.

'There's the women I love.' Guilford thought to himself as he watched as she gained her strength of will back. "Of course you highness, shall I update you on current events?"

"Please do, I'll need every scrap of information I can get, I won't let Zero outsmart me again." Cornelia replied as she sat back down, she vowed that she won't fail again.

Never again.

'Looks like he got it done, well done Mr. Knight of Honour.' Nonette thought to herself with a smile as she stood by the door. She had used her own key to open the door slightly to listen in case things went south but it seemed like her fears didn't come to pass. She quietly closed the door and locked it once more before she walked away, as she reached the corner she saw Euphemia standing there looking concerned.

"Is she…?" The pink haired princess asked her.

"Yeah, she just needed an extra dose of Guil." Nonette joked as she walked right on by, leaving the princess to follow her down the corridor.

"Must you make everything sound so lewd?" Euphemia asked with a blush on her face as she pictured the two of them doing….adult things.

"Yes, it's the only way Nelly ever relaxes!" Nonette laughed as they went along. Stopping only to look up at the only painting of Clovis left in the building, the rest having been taken down for PR reasons.

"So…what's the battle plan?" Euphemia asked her, sounding sober and serious.

"First thing first, Nelly needs to catch up on things, I don't think she'll like to hear about the Chinese fleet." Nonette replied in an equally serious voice as they knew that the time for games was long over.

"I can imagine…and you next move?" Euphemia asked her as she turned her gaze onto the pale blonde knight.

"I need to speak with Lloyd, I got creamed by Zero…I need an upgrade so that doesn't happen again." Nonette said with a grimace as she could still feel the rebel's invisible grip on her neck.

"And if he uses….it?" And of course, Euphemia would bring up the weird part.

"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it." Nonette said as she turned to walk away. "But…" She said as she paused in her steps.

"But?" Euphemia inquired.

"For now, we have to give Cornelia support for the coming battles, something tells me that things are only going to get more complicated from here." Nonette said as she continued to walk away, leaving view when she turned a corner.

'If only you knew…' Euphemia thought to herself as she held onto an old pin, one no-one knew she still had.

The old flower pin that Nunnally had made for her when they were children, it was ragged and torn but she took great care to ensure it would last despite being made out of flowers, twigs, glue and tape.

* * *

 **13** **th** **September 2020S A.T.B/ 3 968BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Britannian Homeland:**

 **Pendragon Imperial Palace:**

"You say you have news brother?" Charles asked his brother, the immortal child code bearer who went by V2. The code bearer had called a meeting so that he could report what they knew so far about the events unfolding in area 11, Charles knew more than his brother but both he and Marianne agreed that keeping V2 in the dark was for the best, since he would most likely do something stupid.

"Quite right Charles. My people were able to capture a few of these so-called Black Knight tanks and study it." V2 revealed as he showed him pictures of the damaged but intact enemy vehicles that his agents…'obtained' in area 11.

"Why study them? Are they not the usual eleven vehicles that all these rebel groups use? Or is it foreign made?" Charles asked as she reviewed the images and show that they looked nothing like the tanks the Japanese once produces, nor did they look European or Chinese.

"It's anything but." V2 said with a sigh as he rubbed his hand through his hair in annoyance. "To put it simply, it is the tiger to our kitty." He said bluntly, which in of itself was odd as V2 always tried to hold up a mature attitude to compensate for being struck in a child's body for the rest of his existence.

"You can't be serious." Charles asked him with a surprised look, he got the reference as the Germany used to be the place to be superior tank design and productions but change in the leadership of the Eu lead to Germany losing that honour, now all the EU tanks were designed and produced in France and Poland.

"I'm afraid I am," V2 confirmed as he showed his brother the stats for both tank models. "This model is the superior to the Abrams in everything from speed to armament." He said as he handed him the file so that he could read it for himself. "Here is the basic information we have confirmed at this point."

 **M1 Abrams(M1 series)** **  
** **Mass: 60 short tons(54t)** **  
** **Length: 9.77m(gun forward) 7.93m(hull length)** **  
** **Width: 3.66m** **  
** **Height: 2.44m** **  
Crew: 4(Commander/Machine gunner/Gunner/Loader)  
Armour: Burlington composite armour which is as tough as 60cm worth of steel against HEAT rounds and 40cm worth against APFSDS rounds  
Main armament: Royal Ordnance L30(55 rounds)  
Secondary armament: 1 x 50. Calibre M2 Browning Heavy machine gun(900 rounds) / 2 x 7.62mm M60 general purpose machine gun(10,400 rounds)  
Fuel capacity:1,900 litres  
Operational range: 426km  
Speed: (Road)72km/h (Off-road) 48km/h**

 **Unknown Black Knight tank codenamed 'Neo Panzer'  
** **Mass: 42.42 short tons(38.48t)** **  
** **Length: 10.56m(gun forward) 7.90m(hull length)** **  
** **Width: 3.72m** **  
** **Height: 2.66m** **  
Crew: 4 man crew with a: driver, gunner, radio operator and commander/machine gunner due to placing of seats and placement of corpses.  
Armour: 8.5cm worth of frontal armour, made from unknown alloy, 7.5cm side plating, 8cm in turret plating and 5cm worth of rear plate.  
Main armament: Unknown type of gun with a calibre of 95mm  
Secondary armament: 1 x 12.7x108mm DShK Heavy Machine Gun(+640 rounds) / 1 x PKP Pecheneg "6P41" machine gun(+1,000 rounds)  
Fuel capacity: +1,200 litres  
Operational range: Unknown  
Speed: (Road)102km/h (Off-road)87km/h**

"So they built their own tank, I can see it being faster since it's the smaller of the two but so what?" Charles said even though the unknown and estimates did raise his concerns.

"I thought the same thing brother but after we run a few more tests, we found that it's clearly the better of the two when it comes to armour and fire power." V2 said as he took out his tablet and showed the footage of a test to him.

"What are we looking at?" Charles asked as he saw a piece of steel be blown right through by an unknown gun.

"Well you already know that our tank gun can pierce up to around 120mm of 60 degree sloped armour from ranges of around 1,828m right?" V2 said as he revealed what the clip was of. Once he got a nod form the emperor, he swiped the screen to another video. "Here is a clip of its performance against one of ours."

It was a short clip, one that showed another, much, much thicker piece of steel being set up on a target range in where Charles could only assume was Canada based on the snowfall. After the plate was set up, the crew moved away and after a couple seconds, a green coloured projectile struck the plate and went all the way through before crushing into the hall behind.

"How thick was that steel?" Charles asked, greatly impressed that he had never seen such destructive force from a tank gun before.

"That was around 660mm worth of steel sloped to a 60 degree at an approximate range of 2,100m. The 820mm plate didn't fare any better." V2 told him, nearly giving the older man a heart attack as he couldn't believe that such a feat was possible. If that was true then it would mean there wasn't a tank that could match such firepower. Nothing short of an anti-ship missile could match that!

"I'm afraid to ask but what about the armour? We know they can kill our tanks from outside our armour's effective range but can it take as big a punch as it dishes out?" Charles asked, hoping for a boon for the incoming headache he'll have to deal with later.

"No, we set up one of the tanks for target practice and fired at it from a range of around 1,900m. The armour didn't hold up."V2 said as he revealed that the enemy guns could destroy each other which helped Charles's mood. "However, the same couldn't be said for our own guns as it could only pierce the frontal plating from a ridiculous range of 200m or less!" And now his mood even further as V2 just through the tablet into the corner in frustration.

"Impossible! Those guns can take on the best of both the EU and Federation."

"That's not even the real kicker, we found that all of them were equipped with what we think is a shield generator. From the field reports my agents acquired, it seemed that my dear nieces' tanker tried to kill them from ranges as close as 150m but each and every shot didn't penetrate. They would explode against the armour but not much else."

'That boy is giving me a headache!' Charles thought himself as he could only imagine the chaos that boy of his would create with an army of tanks that no-one could take on in most situations. "Can we reverse engineer them, or create counters?" He asked the immortal, they needed a defence for such as he already ordered knightmare production increase by 32% to cope with this but he had a feeling they'll need more than that.

"No to the first one as they all seem to be fuelled and armed by an unknown element we haven't identified yet. So as far as making our own, that's off the table for now. As for counters, I have people already on it." V2 reported as he calmed himself down before he looked down at his watch and saw the time.

"I must get back to work Charles but I will speak with you soon enough. Though I will say this," V2 said as he begun to walk towards the secret entrance he had used to get into the throne room without being seen. "Whoever is causing all this commotion in Area 11, we'll need to keep an eye of them."

.

.

.

'Marianne is going to give me hell for this.' Charles thought to himself as he looked over the information one last time and thought about how his children had come across such designs and what sort of ammo and fuel they were using that V2 best people couldn't identify it after this long.

* * *

 **And Done!**

 **I don't know about you but I think that I covered the Narita aftermath pretty well. I know that Cornelia's part in the chapter was small but I can explain that. We saw in cannon that she was only out of it for a at best-8 hours after hearing about Euphemia's death, sure she wasn't in her right mind when she fought Zero on top of the bureau but up till that point, she was quite rationally and level headed, she only lost her shit when she had a chance to kill the man who killed her sweet sister. The point is that the fact that I it was stated she locked herself in her room for so long was quite a deviation from cannon as realistically, she would get be ready for action in two maybe three days, especially if the situation doesn't allow time to rest.**

 **Yes, Nonette is getting her own 7** **th** **gen knightmare to replace her older model. As her fighting style isn't really explained in cannon, I get to do what I wish with her. Another issue is Schneizel, I feel he hasn't made enough appearances by this point, this is something that I intend to fix in the next chapter so be prepared for that. Same with Island Getaway, that's a finale for this story-(which don't worry, will have a sequel if all goes well)-I also plan to include more V2 as I think he's has stayed his hand enough, him not doing anything just seemed out of his character and reasoning.**

 **Lastly on the subject of the tank info, I know that it may not be accurate as the US may not want the exact details if the premier war machine but what I put down was a combination of what is available of Wikipedia and the stats given to the tank in 'Greatest Tank Battles'. One major change I added was the main gun. The reason for this is due to the fact that besides the original M1 variants, all Abrams are armed with a variant of some kind based off the Rheinmetall Rh-120(designated as 120 mm L/44 M256A1smoothbore on the wiki page for the M1 Abrams) so because the real world Abrams is armed with a German made gun, I had to change it as there's no way Britannia would do such a thing, besides there is also a very small chance the EU-(or a company based in the EU) would allow them to do so. Therefore the Abrams are armed with the British designed and produced Royal Ordnance L30 -(look it up if you wish)-this is a gun that like the Rh-120, it is also a 120mm gun. Also, the Black Knight tanks are armoured using Dura-steel, which we are lead to believe is much stronger than steel produced here on earth, which allows the tank to lighter armour but still offer great protection.**


	21. A Long Awaited Reunion

**Okay, we're more or less half way through the events of the R1 and I'm quite pleased with how things have turned out. I know the pacing is a little slow but I'm trying to simulate some realism here, I get you'll waiting for Lulu to blast something big to bits but good things come to those who wait. This chapter will not only cover the meeting between the Black Knights High Command and the Six Houses of Kyoto but also another battle that I've drawn up and before you ask, no it isn't a cannon one but one that I think you'll enjoy nonetheless. Also, I've come to realize something, the colonial government at this point is basically being controlled by women as Dalton is dead and Guilford is a knight first and foremost. The BK only has one female leader which is Leila as Nunnally commands smaller medical units.  
Also, Pkd - your argument isn't as sound as you would think as yes, that wasn't the best time for Kallen to see who was Zero but as least he didn't kill her loving dad, Shirley went through something similar when Villetta told her all this at the worst time since she wanted results fast. Shirley still chose to shot Villetta rather than have his secret get out, she panicked and just acted, she didn't think which shows that was her first instinct while Kallen's was flight. Hell, Shirley later forgave him for that act and grew to love who he was, not who he acted like – she even wanted to stand by his side to ease the burden he had taken onto his shoulders and if not for that little shit Rolo, she would of.  
As for the power armour Dahakstaz, I don't know about it but it's an interesting concept, one that I could work into the storyline.**

* * *

 **Chapter 21: A Long Awaited Reunion**

 **15th September 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Unknown Location:**

'I would have thought the meeting location would be….more secure,' Lelouch thought to himself as he stood alone in a deserted ghetto street. An early morning fog had long since settled in and masked him from view from a distance but that also meant he couldn't see very far himself either, forcing him to quietly reach out with the force to keep watch of his surroundings. 'Perhaps this is just a pick-up point.' He continued that thought as it would make perfect sense for Kyoto to bring him to them and not just give him an address. "No matter, I've already ascertained their identities." He said aloud just as he felt a presence heading towards him, it took another minute before a small, black limo pulled up in front of him and the window rolled down.

"Finally, you're late." Zero told the man, seeing no need to act nice at this time.

"Forgive the late arrival but would you please bring your command staff along as per my master's instructions." The driver apologised and instructed him.

"They are currently patrolling the perimeter in case of any unpleasant interruptions. They'll be back shortly but before that happens." Zero replied as he walked closer to the man's open window and reached out with his hand.

"What are you doing?" The driver asked as he reached for his pistol out of instinct, though he never got the chance to use it.

" _You will tell me where we are going_." Zero told him as he waved his hand towards him, using a Jedi mind trick to persuade him to his side.

"I…I will tell you were we are going." The driver replied, his will easily overwritten in mere seconds. Something Lelouch wondered how strong such a technique could be, seeing how Jedi could in theory, use in on even the strongest willed individuals but didn't because that would require inflicting some minor psychological damage.

"Good, now that's the destination point?" Zero asked the man who was still under his mental control.

"Our final destination is Mt. Fuji." The driver replied without emotion or change in tone, his voice sounding like a droid's in this state of mind.

'The biggest sakuradite mining operation in all of Area 11, why am I not surprised old man?' Zero thought to himself as he rose a brow at what was obviously an attempted show of power. Too bad he'd seen much…much bigger operations on actual mining worlds. " _You will forget ever telling me this information and continue with your day as if nothing happened_." Zero instructed just to be sure as he knew that people tended to forget what they did when under the influence of a mind trick but he didn't get this far by being careless.

"I will forget ever telling you this information and continue with my day as if nothing happened" The driver responded before Zero released him from his control, leaving the man to blink a few times before he shook his head in confusion.

"Good." Zero said in response to his state.

"…Excuse me but did you say something?" The man asked the masked rebel as he couldn't recall something but he wasn't too sure what that was in the first place.

"Nothing at all, and look who's finally made it back." Zero replied as he felt his people heading back towards him. Within moments, SK, Oscar, Warwick, Nunnally-(in her Jedi robes)-and LM made their appearance along with his personal squad and Akito.

"We had to ensure that the area was not being watched." Akito reported as he held the door open for LM to enter, Zero chose to enter through the opposite door.

"Yes, yes. Shall we be on our way then?" Zero waved it off as they all entered the admittedly well furbished limo and closed the doors behind them.

"Of course." The driver answered as he started up the engine again and they drove off.

* * *

(Meanwhile at Narita)

" **Severely damaged corpses should be brought to tent 3, 4 and 5. ID all personal items**." A soldier with a megaphone announced as he directed people around the encampment. Even thought it had been more than a week since Narita, they were still busy with the recovery operation.

" **Bring remains with identifiable faces to tents 1 and 2, note locations and times**." He added as he pointed to the before mentioned tents where family and friends were crying as they identified the bodies of their loved ones. " **Critically injured are to be brought to the medical tents 1 through 4 and other injured are to be brought to tents 5 through 9**." He pointed to another grouping of tents where doctors and nurses were prepping survivors for medical evacuation to military hospitals equipped to deal with this.

" **I got another buried tank over here! Bring a knightmare to help dig it out!** " A knightmare called out as it found the remains of a tank sticking out of the earth.

" **This area has been cleared, move up to the next grid block!** " Someone yelled as they placed down a blue flag to mark the area as cleared.

" **Hurry up! The sooner we finish this, the sooner these people can get help!** " Another knightmare, this one standing further back called out over its speakers.

" **Another burned out APCs it looks like the others one we found!** " A soldier radioed as she found an APC which a human body sticking out of the hatch, poor bastard was covered with radiation burns, it didn't look like a nice way to way. While all this was happening, Rai was standing under a tent set for the ASEEC crew. His knightmare was in the process of having the energy filler replaced after a long day of helping with moving the bodies.

'That unit…he was as fast as Zero's…then there was that transformation.' Rai thought to himself as he recalled how he awestruck by such a machine changing shape, it nearly cost him his life when the red machine tried to grab him. 'Just how many surprises can one man have?' He thought to himself as it seemed that every time they thought they had Zero in their grasps, he pulled a hat trick and left nothing but smoke and Britannian bodies in his wake.

"Dug enough bodies out pf the landslide yet?" Lloyd asked him as he walked up to him with a small, lazy smile. Something Rai took offense to.

"Lloyd, you really need to work on your 'reading the room skills'. And to answer your question, no I'm not, there hasn't really been a drop in the bodies found so I'm still needed here." Rai both scolded and informed him as he looked over the area and could see they would be here another night at least.

"I'll work on that in my free time." Lloyd responded but Rai knew he wasn't really going to do it. 'Free time, he doesn't have any free time if all the work he does on the Lancelot.' The teen thought to himself as he had never seen the scientist rest unless forced.

"But I can see that you have something on the frontal lobe there, so why you tell me all about it. The sooner you do, the better your piloting performance will be." Lloyd told him as he sat down at one of the spare chairs.

'Of course that's what he's concerned about.' Rai thought to himself with a sigh as he saw that he had nothing better to do so he sat down at the same table with the mad scientist. "It's…it's just about the Black Knights, and Zero. What could they possible hope to accomplish with all this?" He asked the older man.

"They are the knights for justice as they say." Lloyd replied, telling him what Zero had been saying for a while now.

"But at what cost?" Rai asked him as a stretcher team went on by carrying a body they had saw fit to cover with a sheet.

"Well isn't that the million pound question of the day?" Lloyd said as he had similar thoughts to such matters but couldn't never grasp it. With science such as chemistry, the cost was always simple but with people, there was no such thing as simple-if answer existed to be found at all. "But we soldiers shouldn't really be concerned about all that, we do as we're told with no questions asked."

"And look what that got the soldiers in Shinjuku. All of the dead were denounced by the military and were denied military honours and funerals." Rai countered as everyone had seen the news reports or heard about. After the truth of Shinjuku got out, the government disowned all personal involved with the dead being publicly denied the chance to be buried in military cemeteries back in the America's and had their names struck off the record in an effort to appease both the commoners and the other world powers. "Just about every survivor had already been disciplined, dishonourably discharged or charged with war crimes." That one was the real media circus as so many soldiers were trialled and imprisoned or put on death row, Rai only escape such a fate because he was an honorary so he didn't have a weapon at the time and as a member of the ASEEC, he was outside the chain of command.

"And yet, you're here discussing things with little old me when you seem to already have a pretty solid moral compass." Lloyd stated as if it were fact, making Rai pause as he took in that statement.

"All set!" Cecile called out to them. "The energy filler has been replaced." She added as the Lancelot was now ready to go.

"Thank you, I'll get right back to work." Rai replied as he got up and went on over the knightmare before he pulled himself into the cockpit and went to activate it.

"Cecile." Lloyd asked as he walked over to her.

"I checked the units, everyone one we know that went against that red knightmare." Cecile said as he she looked over to the Lancelot as it turned on.

"And I was right, wasn't I?" Lloyd asked/stated as the Lancelot left the dock and made its way back into the fray to assist.

"It would appear so, all showed signs of a radiant surge being what destroyed them." Cecile confirmed his suspicions as they both thought of the only person they knew would could design such tech.

"I never imagined Rakshata would work with our enemies." Lloyd thought aloud as he pictured the women in his mind's eye.

"There's also the enemy pilots that piloted those specialty frames. They were extremely skilled." Cecile reported as she took out a data pad and went over the footage they had recovered of the units in question in combat and they were quite the fighters.

"You don't think that they could win, against Lancelot?" Lloyd asked her, though if he was honest with himself, he wasn't too sure himself as to which side would win such an engagement.

"I'm not sure. We already know that Zero himself has the skill and machine needed to do just that. The red one may be the next threat on that list." His assistant said as she opened a new file on another topic they had to discuss. "And speaking of threats, those bolts of energy they were firing." She said as she went over what little data they had on the enemy's newly introduced cannons.

"I already went through the footage and did the calculations. No they weren't knock-off of the VARIS. They did seem less powerful though." Lloyd cut her off as he had already had similar thoughts and chose to go over the data first.

"I went through the enemy wrecks he recovered so far and found none of them used anything like that, their armaments were though state of the art, were still conventional." Cecile replied as she was sadden when they couldn't uncover a single one of those weapons to study, it meant that the enemy had a weapon they knew next to nothing about which would mean more people would die as a result of ignorance of its capabilities.

"Yes and their engines?" Lloyd asked her as she handed him the data pad for him to look over the results himself.

"I did a simply go-over and I can say, they are not Yggdrasil drives found in other knightmares. They aren't even conventional internal combustion engines either." Cecile reported with a frown, not liking where this was going.

"Interesting…" Was Lloyd response to her concern as he went over the data again before he handed the date pad back. "Cecile, have one moved to our workstation in the settlement. I would like to perform a mechanical autopsy on one of them." He said as he walked away, as to do what, she didn't know.

"I'll get right on that."

* * *

(Later – With the Black Knights High Command)

"This sure is taking a while." Alleujah stated as after a long and quiet 30 minute drive and going.

"What did you expect, we don't even know where're going in the first place. Besides, I doubt that we're going straight." Oscar replied as he went over some notes.

"No kidding, I wouldn't be surprised if went in circles for a few hours just to throw off our sense of location." LM added as she had been calm and collected the entire time, not saying a word much like Zero, SK and the robed wearing girl with them.

"Still this meeting had better go well, we don't need the lack of their support." Kallen noted as she knew that having enemies came with the territory but only a fool made needless and distracting enemies.

"It won't be as bad as you think," Liu Mei answered her statement. "The Black Knights already procure or manufacture around 60% of our own supplies. They need us more than we need them since were the best rebel group in the country right now." She told her, not all that afraid of the driver hearing them due to the fact the passenger cabin had been soundproof. She checked.

"The JLF aren't out of the fight yet." Oscar said as everyone present knew that still had quite the number of troops and knightmares.

"True but after Narita, they will fine that they'll have a hard time keeping up with our number of victories and results." Lockon stated as they also knew that the JLF would have a hard time even attempting to match them.

"By the way," LM noted before she turned her gaze onto the leader of the group. "Zero, do you think the JLF showed?"

"It was in our letter to Kyoto that we all meet to better co-ordinate the resistance movement. Though I would much rather adsorbed the remaining JLF into our ranks." Zero responded as he sat with his arms crossed, seemingly lost in thought.

"They didn't say they wouldn't show up so let's be optimistic about this and hope for the best." The robed girl said, adding to the conversation but before Kallen could question her place among them, they felt the car slow to a stop before it jolted as if it was going up.

"Hmm." Zero muttered as he looked to the curtain and tilted window as if he could see through it.

"We're going up?" Tierra asked with a frown of confusion.

"Seems like a car elevator. We must he here already. Remember, be on your best behaviour. I have a feeling this will be a….fruitful encounter." SK repeated to the group as they felt the car stop again and this time, they heard the driver exit the car and make his way to their door.

"Sorry for the inconvenience, the masters await your arrival." The driver said politely as they all exited the car before they went down the instructed hallway in the dark.

'Here they come, the moment of truth.' Zero thought to himself was he felt his heart race at the thought at seeing the man he thought of as his grandfather again. They walked for another couple of minutes before they came into a large room with a wall sized window, which gave them a view of something they didn't expect.

"This is…" Oscar said as he took in the site of the metal covered mountain side, his jaw dropped.

"The Fuji mines….but how?" Liu Mei added to the confusion as she came forward to the window and saw the whole complex, there were even workers and trucks moving about.

"How could we be here of all places, I must he seeing things." Alleujah muttered as she rubbed his eyes, maybe he stayed up too late last night?

"This can't be a dream. There's only one mountain like it in Japan, hell there's no other like in the world!" Kallen shot down that thought as she stood in amazement alongside Zero, LM, SK and Akito, she didn't notice that none of them reacted.

"Which mean the whole reason the brits tore Japan a new one in right below us. Still, Kyoto's power in quite impressive if we're here." Akito suggested as he seemed to be the case was to why they had been brought here of all places. He wasn't interested in fighting his way out of the 2nd most secure location in all of Area 11 with just his knife and hidden pistol.

"No joke, they execute all intruders they find here so they must have some power." Lockon said as he whispered, impressed with their possible allies.

"It's repulsive." Zero stated all of the sudden, clearly not sharing in the amazement.

"Zero?" Kallen asked him as he walked over to the window to look down on the site much like Liu Mei and Oscar.

"This mountain was once a place of sacred cultural monument, a white peaked beauty that for hundreds of years inspired hundreds of artist, poets, writers and so many more. A site so awe inspiring that even foreign tradesmen, sailors and government envoys would stop and basked in its beauty." He said, sounding like he was one of those who had fallen in love with the place before his tone went dark and dangerous.

"Now it stands here being torn asunder, raped by the imperial bastards in their never-ending greed for power and wealth. The mere site of it sparks nothing but rage in my soul." He spat out as he tightened his right hand into a fist in anger, holding back the rage that wished he destroyed the entire complex, worker and all. 'There are days when I wonder if Charles is a Sith, his actions near perfectly mirror the atrocities the Sith have committed in the middle and outer rim.' Oh how he longed to see that old bastard burn for his sins but there was a time and place for everything.

Even first degree murder and treason against the crown.

"I see that I'm not the only one present with those sentiments, Zero." A voice stated out the shadows before the lights went out and the window shutters closed. Leaving the room bathed in the soft glow from the back-up lighting system.

"Apologies for not showing our faces but we it would be unclothe for us to reveal our own faces when you and your command staff hide yours from the world." Another voice spoke out, this one sounding much younger than the first and…feminine.

"We understand, we must build a level of trust before such valuable things such as identities can be shared." SK replied as he along with the rest of the group walked towards the other side of the room where the voices were coming from. They were met with 12 suit wearing guards, all armed with SMGs and behind them – were seven shadows behind silk curtains. They must Kyoto, though Kallen wondered why they were seven if they were called the six houses.

"Yes but I fail to see the reason as to why the JLF leadership cover their faces right now," Zero said as he cleared up the mystery as he gestured toward the seventh unknown person as he could make out five other shadows behind them. "All know of Tohdoh and his Holy swords and what they look like, their masks at this affair is a moot point."

"That is a good point and SK is right in the fact we must have a level of trust between us but we cannot trust you anymore than we've already have." A third voice said, sounding much more powerful than the other two by a wide margin. "Not unless we see your face." The voice finished just as four green and brown GINNs made their appearance onto the stage, surrounding the group.

"What is the meaning of this? We're supposed to be on the same side!" Lockon demanded as he tried to reach for his gun but one of the knightmares aimed its machine gun right for his chest, forcing him to relax.

"Oh my, I didn't think you would turn my gifts to you against me, such an ungrateful bunch." Zero stated as he took in the sight of what must have been the real four holy swords, those shadows behind the seventh must have been decoys to fool them, how clever.

"Please wait, Zero has given us power and victory over the Britannians, he had given the Japanese's people hope again!" Kallen tried to defend their leader but she was cut off.

"Silence!"

"Now Zero…" The voice asked as the knightmares red dot lasers activated and each one was aimed for a member of the group, in zero's case. Two dots were primed on his person. "Will you and your staff remove your masks?" The room was silent for a few moments as Zero appeared to think his options over. Any other man would have folded then and there and done what they asked but…

Zero was no other man.

"…I expected such a respond to be perfectly honest, it's in your nature to be paranoid, old man." Zero taunted the main speaker as he step forward, undaunted by the big guns aimed at him

"What!" One of the guards exclaimed,

"Show some respect!" Another yelled as he made a show of cocking his gun to try and intimidate the masked man, shame it didn't work in the slightest.

"It has been some time but it's good to see that some things don't change, clan chief of Kyoto – and founder and CEO of Kirihara Industries: Taizo Kirihara." He continued as he spoke out a name he shouldn't have known, a name which surprised all present as they either couldn't believe it or couldn't believe he knew it.

" **Anyone that can identify the master must die!** " One of the four knightmares present yelled, the pilot sounding to be a female.

" **Especially someone who won't show their face!** " Another called out as the got ready to turn them into a bloody paste on the floor.

"Zero…" The robed girl uttered the masked man as he stood, seemingly about to be shot to pieces.

"SK, the knightmares are yours. I got the guards." He ordered as he turned his gaze to the armed guards in front of them, to them they felt a chill go up their spines as they looked onto his masked face thought they didn't know why.

"On it." SK said as he stepped forwards as well and rose both armed towards the knightmares.

" **Hand on the-The Hell!** " Chiba screamed out as she felt her knightmare suddenly become weightless and leave the ground without any input from her, she looked over her cameras and to her shock, the other three were going through the same thing!

" **What's going on!? Why am I floating?!** "Urabe yelled in confusion and fear as his knightmare's rifle and ripped from his hands and thrown to the other side of the room, the other three quickly losing their big guns as well.

" **Stop them!** " Senba ordered the guards whatever was happening to them was linked to what SK was doing, he needed to be stopped but before the men could fire on him, they found their rifles ripped from their hands as well. Those same rifles then flew over to Zero and turned to face them.

'What the hell is going on here?!' Kaguya thought to herself in shock Zero had basically taken control of 12 guns and aimed them towards Kyoto….with but a single hand!

"Oh-no you don't," Zero said as he wiggled his finger at them, the guns still in the air alongside the knightmares. "This is a no-shooting zone." He taunted as SK chose that moment to use his power to crush the right hands for all the machines and pull out the left hands, one by one.

"Now as I was saying earlier. Your have changed a bit, old man but that isn't necessarily a good thing." Zero stated as he took a few steps forward towards them. One of the guards still tried to charge him but found himself being lifted off the ground as well and choked at the same time. To all present, Zero walked like a god in human form with the power to back that up. Even his own staff were shocked to see him ad SK do such feats.

"How is this possible? How do you know who I am?" Kirihara demanded of him as the masked man reached the curtains before him, looking down at him from his standing position.

"I shall answer that question in a bit but first," "Why don't you all come out of those knightmares. Or would your rather just sit tight and listen like children?"

"How is they doing this?!" Lockon yelled in fear as he took a step back.

"It…this…it's impossible." Clearly Tierra wasn't handling thins well and much like the rest of them, he looked like he wanted to drop or run.

'He should have told them sooner, they don't need to see him as some God, it isn't right.' Nunnally thought to herself as he leaked out some of her own power to try and calm them down enough to listen to reason. It wasn't easy as she had never used it on a group but it worked. All without them knowing why they all felt calmer than they did a moment ago.

"SK, would you kindly let them down, I doubt they'll start something now." Zero asked his masked companion who was still holding up the knightmares.

"Fine with me." SK responded before he lowered both arms and allowed gravity to take hold again which meant all four damaged frames fell right back down. Groans could be heard from each machine. "Sorry about that, not used to juggling living targets like that." SK apologised as he walked towards Zero and stood slightly behind him just as the masked man dropped the guns and man he was levitating in the air onto the ground, too far out of reach for anyone to reach them.

"Alright then, start talking." One of the voices demanded, sounding like they thought they were still in control.

"First, I have to take care of any unwanted listeners." Zero stated, completely ignoring the elder as he reached out his hand again which made the guards flinch back in fear but that didn't save them as they all found an invisible hand strangling them. They tried to fight it but within seconds all of them had fallen to the floor, not moving. "Relax, they're not dead, I merely knocked them, they'll wake up in about 20 minutes." He flippantly commented as he could fell the fear coming from behind the curtains and fallen machines. Though he could have if he wanted to that would have served no purpose and he wasn't one who killed needlessly, all action mush have reason after-all.

"You certainly don't take risks." Kaguya said slowly as she eyed the masked man who just chuckled at her words, sounding amused of all things.

"Of course I don't Kaguya Sumeragi, but that is to be expected. Lord Kirihara was very strict on covering your bases, weren't you…my old master?" Zero said as he turned his gaze onto the elder man as he came to sit cross legged in front of him.

"What are you talking about, I only took one stu-!" Kirihara started but paused when a chilling memory came to the forefront of his mind, he only took pone student, that boy from all those years ago. "No…It can't be…."

" _Oh but it can, Kirihara-dono_." Zero said in perfect Japanese as he reached for his helmet, the clamps and lock mechanism coming undone with a distinctive hiss. " _To be frank, I'm quite pleased to be dealing with you, it has been a long 10 years since we last saw each other_." Lelouch added with a smirk as he removed the helmet for the six houses plus guest to see, revealing the face of the boy some of them hadn't seen in a long time.

'The Prince!' Kaguya and guest thought to themselves at the same time as they would have never guest it was him. Kallen especially was stunned by this as she would have never guessed that the boy she was spying on was her leader, did he…oh she was going to get him back for this!

"Lelouch…do my old eyes deceive me?" Kirihara softly asked as he moved the curtain aside to better look at him.

" _No they do not, Kirihara-dono. It brings me great joy to see you in good health after such an extended time apart_." Lelouch responded with a small but truly relieved smile as he bowed to the man he held in such high regard. A man that in the few shorts months they had together, was a better person to him than a grand majority of his own flesh and blood.

" _It has been years since that family received you as a hostage_." Kirihara spoke as the gravity of the situation fell onto his shoulders like a tonne of bricks. " _We thought, the world thought you were dead_."

" _Reports of our demise were….greatly exaggerated_." SK said in Japanese as he took a seat next to the unmasked teen.

"Ours?" Kagura asked.

" _That is correct, Kaguya Sumeragi. I'm not the only dead man walking in this room. Nemo, LM. Show our friends here your faces_." Lelouch instructed the other three masked people who in turn reached for their individual helmets/masks. Thought now that she knew who Zero, a possible identity for SK started to form in the mind of Sumeragi.

'Wait, if Zero is Lelouch then could SK be…' She thought to herself just as the other three revealed their faces to them. Two of which were faces she thought she'll only see in the afterlife and the third was one she was unfamiliar with.

" _Greetings everyone. It is great to finally see you again, like really see you all_." Nunnally said with her signature smile and a wave.

" _Hello Tohdoh-sensei. It's been a while_." Suzaku said as he looked them all over as he looked directly at the curtain that hide his old master from view.

" _You three….your alive?_ " Tohdoh asked in disbelief as he stood at the side of Genbu who looked like he might have a heart attack from this surprise of an presentation.

" _And have been for the last decade. Unfortunately we didn't walk away from the invasion without…scars_." Suzaku said slowly as he reached for his face again, the people in the room didn't know what he was doing till he grasped onto an artificial surface and removed the mask that gave him a unblemished face, showing his scars to his master and his father, though he didn't know Genbu was present.

"Oh god…" Kaguya said as she covered her mouth as she took in the damage face of her elder and only remaining cousin.

" _It's not as bad as it looks. It could have been worse_." Suzaku said as he put the mask back on to hide away the evidence of his troubled past, though everyone could still see it in their minds eye.

"How…?" Kaguya asked, still coming to terms with all this.

"[Sign] sister, if you will?" Lelouch said as he turned his gaze onto the younger Britannian girl who in turn nodded her head sadly before she took off her robed and lifted her pant leg to let the audience see the clearly fake leg she had to use, she swapped our the regular one for this spare just so it was blatantly clear.

"God!" Kallen let out as she couldn't believe that such a sweet girl was needed a prosthetic leg. Who would do such a thing?

"Everything from the knee down was blown off in a missile strike." Nunnally explained as she let her pant leg fall back down as she took a seat next to her brother once more. "Brother needed organ transplants and extensive bone and tissue for his right arm while Suzaku was not just scared but nearly killed in that same strike." At her words, it seemed Genbu decided he couldn't stay seated any longer and got up with the help of his cane, his sudden stance surprising Tohdoh.

"Genbu…!" He tried to assist the former PM but the man wasn't having it and shook him off as he walked through the curtain into full view of the gathered group. His mere appearance was shocking to say the least as not even Lelouch knew that he was still alive.

"Genbu…father?" Suzaku asked as he rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing things right but he was. Even though the man looked like he had seen far better days and walked with a cane as if he was an elder like Kirihara he could recognise his father anywhere.

"Suzaku….is that really you?" Genbu asked before he found himself engulfed in a very strong hug, he would have complained about the sudden pain but his joy overweight such notions.

"Father…I thought you were killed! The news didn't stop reporting it for weeks!" Suzaku balled as held the man tight, he was so angry and heartbroken when they intercepted news reports about his death just before the fall of the central Japanese government.

"They killed a body double, but that's not important, you're here! Alive! I never thought I'll ever you again!" Genbu replied as he hugged his boy back with as much strength as his weak bones could muster. The sight of such a reunion was a happy one for those watching as even Tierra cracked a small smile at the joyful moment. Though he was concerned why the colonials made that statement, they must have figured out the truth if they did an autopsy…or did they? Maybe they tried killing with a bombing of some kind that thought there would be no useful remains left to identify him?

"And I you….We have a lot of catching up to do…as father and son I mean." Suzaku said as he let his father out of the hug but didn't let go of him.

"That's we do son, that we do." Genbu agreed with him as they two starting to exchange small bits of what the other had been doing all this time, nothing too concreate or serious but enough to let the other know they had been rather busy for the past decade. They did learn that Genbu had developed Asbestosis due to their house falling on him and burying him in rubble for over 2 days before they dug him, Lelouch vaguely recalled hearing Genbu talking about renovating the place because of the high amounts of asbestos used in the construction of the place, being exposed to that stuff for two full days could give you asbestosis.

'I didn't think he was the leader of the JLF, the brits were so sure they managed to kill him. Must have been a convincing body double.' Lelouch thought to himself as Genbu wasn't even on the list of possible people leading the JLF, but he supposed he should have done more digging into him, after-all his own 'death' is still an official thing in the eyes of the empire and most of the world, you'll think that a such an off-the-grid guy would read into things more.

"Isn't it great? Uncle Genbu is alive!" Nunnally whispered to him as she leaned closer, not wanting to ruin the moment.

"Yes it is a cause for celebration. But," Lelouch told her before he rose his voice at that last word to gain the two Kururugi's attention. "Now isn't the best time for such, I'm sure we can organise something later but let's keep things strictly business for now." He asked the two men who sheepishly rubbed the back of their heads in slight embarrassment.

"[Ahem] Yes, let's do so." Genbu said as he tried to brush off the embarrassing moment. "I suppose the first question would be how you who we were." Genbu asked as they two separated and went back to their seats.

"Oh that?" Lelouch asked as he brushed it off with a wave of the hand. "That was easy, I already know you so figuring out how you would respond to things wasn't too hard. After all you five are the wealthiest Japanese alive right now, only you could fund a rebel movement spanning a country. I also know that young Kaguya here…" He explained as he turned his attention of the rather beautiful female member of the Kyoto. "As always been good keeping secrets and spinning tales, much like her parents before her having the Sumeragi Conglomerate cover up any evidence against you would be the logical move." He finished as he had already figured out that many of the shell companies and other false fronts Kyoto used to cover up their involvement with rebel groups either ran through Kaguya or she had something to do with it personally.

"As for your second question…that'll be harder to answer." Nunnally said as she searched for the right words to describe their powers to people who didn't even know about the galactic community at large.

"How so?" Warwick asked, speaking up for the other side of this group of people.

"What if we told you all that…there is life beyond our planet?" Lelouch said slowly as he looked them all in the eyes.

"Come again." Kallen said, thinking she misheard that.

"What if we told you that Earth is one of hundreds of worlds in this universe with intelligent lifeforms? And that earth is on the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to technological and medical advancement?" Suzaku added to the discussion, also sounding serious. Their statement was crazy to them but seeing how the two just did the impossible right before their eyes, they were inclined to hear them out.

"Seeing how today has been filled with ups and downs and the random revelation, we'll have to ask for proof of such claims." One of the other houses spoke up.

"Well for proof, we have three pieces of evidence to present." Nunnally said as she reached for her belt and pulled out her lightsaber. "The first piece of evidence would be this." She said as she held it up for all of them to see.

"What are we looking at here?" Liu Mei asked as it just looked like a metallic rode, sure it was well decorated but there wasn't much to it. Certainly not proof of alien life or civilisation beyond their planet.

"This," She said as she activated the lightsaber, allowing a blade of glowing blue plasma blade, stunning the audience as such a thing was like nothing like anything they've ever seen. "Is a lightsaber, the signature weapon of force sensitive beings. We all have our own and in Suzaku and Lelouch's case, they have two each." Nunnally explained as she turned her blade off and placed it back by her belt.

"Force sensitive?" Oscar asked as that was an odd term.

"We are what you would call 'Force sensitive' beings that are force sensitive can tap into the universal power otherwise known as the force. Which to sum it up grants those trained for extremely gifted a multitude of abilities which includes is not limited to: mind control; telekinesis; generating electricity and fire as well as control over the two to some extent; limited to extremely potent precognition; increased strength; reflexes and stamina; enhanced movement speed and jump velocity." Lelouch explained to them as he used his powers to lift one of his own lightsabers into the air for them to see as a demonstration. "The powers and extent of each individual ability vary from person to person but can be awaken or strengthened via training, also some may develop abilities unique to them and them alone."

"Incredible, and you can do all that?" Genbu said as he looked at his son in amazement.

"Most of them, some abilities come easier to others." Suzaku replied as he knew that when it came to precision control, Lelouch had him beat. He could lift heavier loads though.

"As you could imagine, we had to go through such training ten years ago to fully understand our gifts." Nunnally said, bringing the conversation back on track.

"The second piece of evidence would by our knightmares, most common of the lot the GINN." Lelouch said as he presented them with a series of pictures of the GINN right off the production line before they were even given their normal colour pallet.

"What about it?" Tohdoh said, they already knew the GINNs were state of the art, so much so they didn't like using them all that often as they dint accept the usual energy filler, forcing them to use the ones they were supplied with in the beginning.

"As you all must be aware of, they are state of the art by earth standards but not so much by galactic. That's the main reason we have been able to produce as many as we have so far, both the materials and parts needed are cheap to acquire but also effective as we all have seen them make short work of sunderlands and gloucesters." Lelouch told them as they had built those same machine for a really low cost, about 72% of what it would cost for a brand new sunderland. "However the part of it which is the evidence would be the fuel."

"We know that it isn't sakuradite, the performance is too high for even that." Kaguya said as they had examined the machines after Narita to try and replicate them but found that fuel was the main reason of concern.

"Yes that's because they run off Rhydonium, a substance which is 7.3 times more powerful than sakuradite but found in much….much lower numbers here in earth." Suzaku revealed to them, giving a name to the unknown substance powering their war machine.

"How rare are we talking here?" Another member of the six houses asked, how expensive could such a thing be if they saw fit to use it for military purposes?

"Right now liquid sakuradite trades at around 399.1 pounds per barrel-(130 litres). If we were to only take into account rhydonium found naturally on earth, one barrel of liquid rhydonium-(130 litres)-would cost 139,709.2 pounds." Suzaku told them, giving an insane price tag to the substance in question which nearly gave Kyoto a heart attack.

"What!" Kirihara demanded! That was insane, for that price you could buy hundreds of barrels of liquid sakuradite and still have change to spare!

"With that price you could buy hundreds of barrels worth of sakuradite!" Clearly he wasn't the only one thinking that as even the calm Warwick couldn't believe that the stuff was that expensive.

"Exactly, at that price, using at as a fuel source for anything short of a space ship would be both too expensive and idiotic. However Earth may small amounts of the stuff but we've been to worlds in this section of space where it is abundant. On one of them, the levels of naturally occurring would make a barrel of the stuff as cheap as 179.59 pounds." Lelouch told them, giving them a better view of the situation which helped as that kind of price made it more feasible, though they did have question about how expensive it was to transport the stuff from another frickin planet.

"You can see where're going with this." Kirihara said as he rubbed his forehead, only his former student could give him both a near heart-attack and headache in the same hour.

"Good….but what was the final piece of evidence?" Nunnally said before she took out a small disc like object from her robed sleeves.

"Our masters." She said as she used the force to levitate the object to the ground in front of Kirihara.

"Masters?" Tohdoh asked, they said they needed training but this was the first time they brought them up.

"Yes, the beings who took us in all those years ago and trained us in the ways of the force. They'll like to speak with you actually." Nunnally replied as the holoprojector turned itself on and in front of the earthling audience, they laid eyes on two aliens for the first time. One looked human but clearly in his twilight years while the other one was extremely tall and hairy, looking like an extinct genius of ape.

" **Greetings. Six houses of Kyoto. My pupils have told me much of you**." Kaden greeted the Kyoto group with an elegant bow and smile.

"Y-yes, greetings to you as well. To whom are we speaking?" Kaguya asked, trying to be just as polite though she got a vibe of danger off the two so called masters.

" **My name is Kaden Jaunus. My fellow master is Master Auburna. I'm a human from the core world of Coruscant while Auburna is a Wookie from the mid-rim world of Kashyyyk**." Kaden introduced themselves with a gesture to himself and his fellow force user.

"Mid-rim? Core? What are you talking about?" Kirihara asked as such terms held no meaning to him.

" **Oh yes, forgive me, I forgot you don't know much about the galaxy. Suzaku if you would?** " Kaden asked of his student.

"Of course my master." Suzaku said as he pulled out another holoprojector and levitated it over to the first one. Once it touched down, it activated and presented to the group a map of the known galaxy to the human observers. Showing them just how large the universe was as they all saw the numerous planets, moons and civilian space stations.

"Fascinating." Warwick said as he always had a romantic view of the cosmos ever since he was a child back in England.

"It's beautiful." Kallen said as she was mesmerized by all the different star systems and planets, it looked do pretty even though the map was in shades of blue and white.

"This is the known galaxy?" Suzaku stated as he waved his hand over the vast expanse of map.

" **Yes. As you can see there are hundreds of inhabited worlds and thousands of moons, both inhabitable or not**." Kaden explained to them as the map highlighted the different regions of space from the deep core to the furthest reaching zones of the unknown region. " **Coruscant is here, within the grouping of planets near the centre known as the core worlds."** Kaden said as he pointed towards the planet in the core world region. **"Kashyyyk is here, among the grouping of planets known as the mid-rim. The further out you go, the further your region**." He finished as he gestured towards the Wookie home-world.

"And where's earth here? I don't see it." Genbu asked as he searched for the map for where their home was located and didn't see a mention of it anywhere.

" **That is because Earth and your neighbouring systems are located here** ," Kaden explained as the map moved towards the unknown regions and highlighted it, showing that as far as they had found in the years since they found earth, there were about another 8 other star systems that were safe to travel to via hyperspace. " **In a region of space that yet to be probably explored and map known as the Unknown Region**." The map zoomed in on one of those star systems and finally settled on a bird's eye view of their star system.

" **It is because of this that earth has been left alone for all these years. As you very well known, civilisations have always looked down on those they deem to be stronger or more 'civilised' than. Almost every planet you see here is its own fully functioning nations much like the territories you have on earth**." Kaden told them as they map left the unknown region and went back to the core worlds, showing them that the planet of Coruscant was so populated that it had cities the size of small countries on average with larger ones easily outsizing any of the earth nation's capitals.

"How would one cover such distance so quickly, the fastest space shuttle we have would take days to reach our own moon, never mind another inhabited planet?" Alleujah asked as he stepped forwards to gain a better view of the map and show that the distance between even relatively close worlds was a great one.

"One reason is because our space ships are much faster in vacuum, the average cruising speed for one is around 300,000kmp/h-(161,987knot). The other reason is because most vessels are equipped with hyper-drives which allows those ships to enter an alternate state of existence known as hyperspace, a zone where objects travel at speeds exceeding the speed of light, allowing objects such as ships to travel light years in a matter of minutes." Suzaku explained as he had asked Kaya the same questions years ago, it still impressed him to discover an ancient civilisation was the ones who pioneered hyperspace tech.

"At such speeds, one could go from earth to Pluto and back with an hour. Therefore making interplanetary travel not just feasible but serves as the backbone for the galactic community's commerce, trade, politics and warfare." Lelouch finished the presentation as the map turned off and finally made some sense to the viewers as they wanted to ask how they moved resources so quickly within lengthy delays.

"This is how we've been moving supplies from our installation on Mars to Earth so quickly, an added bonus is the ships we use can avoid being detected by both satellites and ground based surveillance." Nunnally added as an afterthought. "It pays when your opponents are really lagging behind in terms of tech."

"All this is a lot….to take in." Tierra said as he fell down onto the floor as they didn't have any seats.

"I would imagine. But you can rest assured, we aren't going to take over the world or something, we are merely trying to save the planet we call home." Lelouch said to his men, wanting them to know he wasn't some cliché movie alien that wanted to take over the earth, though the idea of saying that to screw with people was tempting.

"But we do need your help in another regard. We need assistance setting up more front companies and shell corporations. We only have about 4 right now which allows us to sell millions of pounds worth of materials mined and/or otherwise obtained on other worlds here but with how things are going…" Nunnally stated to the group of elders.

"The Black Knights are expanding too fast for you to keep operating financially." Kirihara summarised as he could see how their success could lead to such a problem, they were expanding faster than any other group in the country and for the most part, were self-reliant when it came to funding and materials.

"Bingo." Lelouch said, seeing no issue with being honest as he had a feeling that lying or not otherwise hiding the truth would come and bite him in the ass later. Also, Master Auburna had been very clear in her desire for the boy to be more…open with the people he works with, yes open is a good word.

"I can think of a few names who would buy top dollar goods. What do you have to sell right now?" One of the houses asked up front.

"About 145,000 pounds worth of Aluminium, tin and copper." Lelouch replied off the top of his head, he had already memorized the import papers sent in from Mars the previous week.

"That…doesn't seem like much, all considering." Kaguya said slowly as she figured a group the size of the BK would burn through that kind of funding in one or two days if you took into account everything from training needs to actual combat. Hell, that kind of money wouldn't cover the operation costs for all the BK suspected run medical clinics in Shinjuku for a two days.

"I have already seen the sale of around 8,020,000 pounds worth of product in the last month alone." Lelouch said in his defence, thought he knew that that training cost alone were increasing at a rate that they were having issues supplying the instructors with what they need. After that, both sides were able to sit down and not only iron out an agreement but also set up new deal which would allow the BK to sell up to 65% more product using Kyoto contracts and resources while at the same time, they agreed to supply Kyoto with the blueprints for the GINN as well as supply Kyoto with enough rhydonium to produce 55 GINNs monthly for the next three months before they would increase those shipments to allow for production to raise to 80. Those same deals would see around 120 of the JLF best remaining pilots being sent over to the BK for training so that they could properly handle the controls of the GINNs to bring out their full potential.

They also shared their plans for some upcoming operations and possible targets that the high command had drawn up and thoroughly discussed this with both Kyoto and Genbu in order to properly organise an attack force. It took some convincing on their end but both Lelouch and Leila was able to dissuade everyone from attacking in the western regions of Honshu and Kyushu till they could accurately assess the situation there as a Chinese presence would be bad for everyone present. As much as they all hated the idea if it, they agreed that if the situation got really out of hand and they saw that the Imperials could not handle it, then the Black Knights would deploy their own assets to help kick the federation back to the mainland.

Though one matter that helped everyone feel better about themselves was the fact that Nunnally admitted that the Black Knights had set up small clinics in the ghettos to offer up free medical attention to the Japanese populace. She and Kagura were able to argue for all sides present to agree to allocate additional supplies, funding and manpower to this humanitarian task which meant that Shinjuku alone was going to see another 4 clinics opened in the next few weeks to add to the 5 already present. Other ghettos in Kanto were due to receive another two each till such a time when they can negotiate with some of the member states of the EU for more supplies.

Lelouch was able to share that they had successfully built a POW complex on Ruben Island, the prison itself was 20m below the surface and the entry points and ground installations were purposely designed to be concealed and hard to identify. Now if they captured prisoners, they had a place to chuck up to 2,000 of them. Kirihara laughed when he heard that had built such a place so quickly using droids as they were much…much cheaper than living workers as all they needed for a day's worth of power and they were set to go, no food, water or salaries required. Kyoto was able to include the purchase of around 400 of these worker droids into their deal in exchange for a 40% increase in munitions packages to the BK.

Though if Kallen was honest with herself, two things about the meeting stuck out to her. The first being the fact that they had planned a giant gamble of an operation for December codenamed 'Operational Island Getaway' which when she heard about what the target was, blew her mind at the boldness and/or arrogance at picking such an important target. The second thing was how Kaguya looked at Ze-Lelouch, that's gonna take some getting used to, anyway the way she looked at him was…unsettling because he reminded her of how Rivalz would look at Milly. She felt like she should tell her about him being all but married with a child on the way but it wasn't her story to tell. By the end of the meeting, everyone left Mt. Fuji feeling like they accomplished a good deal of work and set worth to handle their parts of the plans they agreed to.

Things were certainly going to get more interesting around Japan, that's for sure.

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 **And stop. That is chapter 21 finished and served for all of you to read and enjoy. I hoped that it was a well written piece as I had to work in some of what occurred in cannon but changed it for obvious reasons. To that end, I wanted to show that Rai is his own person by having him have his own reasons and thoughts about the state of things.  
Suzaku in cannon didn't like the death the BK was responsible for but didn't offer up much of an argument against it other than his usual 'end don't justify the means' spiel.  
Rai on the other hand, is capable of placing faith into his own moral compass and sense of dignity as he knows that only drones follow orders without thinking, he knows that the orders he may be given could be morally wrong such as the Clovis's intentions for Shinjuku and therefore feels that soldiers in particular should be able to decide right from and wrong and act upon that judgement.**

 **Lloyd and Cecile having a moment was a given as they are two scientist, if they see tech they don't understand or that don't have in their own arsenal, they'll gonna want to study it and learn all they can.  
These are the same two who suped up the Guren into a 9** **th** **machine even though we know for a fact that Rakshata would have killed them both if given the chance for touching her creation, at least, we know Cecile would think of that the Indian woman would do to them. Speaking of which, Rakshata will make her appearance soon, don't worry.  
As for the meeting itself, yes they could have brought along CC and done the same trick from cannon but Lelouch is a man who enjoys the theatrics and such a power play as the one I imagined for this story just seemed more like him. I know that I could have done better with the reunion part but I'm never really been good at writing such things.**

 **As for the coming chapter, I have something special planned as I can't really use Mao because he's dead and a mind reader would pose a serious risk as all he would have to do was leak dangerous information to the right people for people such as VV and Charles to learn about it. I don't think I need to explain why VV reaching out to Sith lords would be a disaster waiting to happen. VV will play a larger role in the coming chapters as he is still an antagonist and potentially the most dangerous one on earth as his childish behaviour and short-sighted selfish tendencies make him rather unpredictable.**


	22. VV Debut

**Alright then, I'm finally going to introduce a villain that I've been dreading ever since I started writing this but dammit, he is a threat that must be addressed. This chapter will be the big screen debut of V.V. the little prick deserves the chance to cause some mayhem(Though the actual scene will be a small one, the reason of which will be explained in the post chapter notes). Also, I'm going to try and do a slow burn for whatever Shirley goes with in relations to her growing feelings for the banished prince so be prepared for that. I'm also going to try and fit in some screen time for Kaya and what she's been up to all these mouths.**

* * *

 **Chapter 21: V.V. Debut**

 **28th September 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

 **Lamperouge Residence:**

' _Hello again C.C. It's been a while since the last time we spoke_.' C.C heard a familiar voice in her head as she sat and watched some TV.

' _Some mouths yes but it's not like it really matters to me, what do you want?_ ' C.C thought back as she flipped through the channels trying to find something good to watch.

' _Come now C.C, there's no need to be rude, couldn't I just have called to talk, nothing more?_ ' Marianne asked her, sounding offended but C.C had been alive long enough to know bull when she heard it.

' _Like I believe that, you and I both know we only talk when there's something we want to know._ ' C.C rebuked as she got up and went to get some pizza from the fridge. She would have been worried about of the three homeowners hearing her if they were present. At that moment, all three were out.

' _We are the same in that regard, old friend. So…what's been going on with you?_ ' Marianne asked her, not even acknowledging the fact she just wanted information.

' _Not much, they don't really tell me much outside what I need to know but I hear them talking every now and then_.' C.C said as she looked through the fridge for something to eat.

' _And?_ ' The 'dead' consort pressed.

' _Besides that big battle in Narita, they're already met with Kyoto and have secured support for expansion. Sounds like you kids just went to the bank to get a loan_.' C.C revealed as she finally found a couple slices.

' _That's…troubling, the fact they needed aid to accommodate larger numbers means that they were really on the rise in Area 11_.' Marianne stated as she figured Charles would want to hear about his latest development. They thought they already had Kyoto's backing, how else would they have access to their equipment.

' _No kidding, I was able to get a look at Lelouch's computer, they have over 6,000 active combat personal alone. They've really made it big for themselves_.' C.C added as she put the cold pizza onto a plate and moved to the microwave.

' _Over 6,000! OSI was only able to find out they had around 3,400!'_ Oh C.C had a feeling heads in the OSI were going to role for this one _. 'Where are they getting all those people...You what? Never-mind_.' Marianne started but stopped when she remembered that a good portion of elevens hated their collective guts.

' _Yeah, I heard him talking to Suzaku about that. It appears that they are smart enough to have reserve forces, right now they have only 2,000 of those personal active_.' At least that was some good news, but still…

' _So Nelly doesn't even know what she's getting into?_ ' Marianne asked her old friend.

' _No she does not. Maybe you should tell her_.' C.C suggested as she took the pizza out of the microwave and went back to the couch.

' _Oh right, and how are we going to explain how we know this? Who would we even send? Anya is stuck in since they're still working out the bugs on her knightmare's float system_.' Marianne shot down that idea.

' _So they finally got around to building the Mordred. I was wondering when they project would get off the ground_.' C.C commented as she had heard whispers of it during her time in the imperial court, though the original idea had long since been altered to cope with the changing times.

' _Yeah well, Anya had to put her own funds into the project. But I won't be too much stock into it. The damn Hadron cannon still isn't ready. The development team is content to sit back and let Earl Asplund figure the technology out and then just ask him for help_.' Marianne complained as it meant that she won't be seeing any active combat for a while. If those idiots had taken the initiative and done the work themselves, she would have been able to assist in capturing thought elevators.

' _Oh yes, I heard the boys talking about him. His Lancelot is really quite something_.' C.C replied, she wasn't really listening to the two boys but from their tones, she could tell they wanted to capture such a machine.

' _How much do they know?_ ' Marianne asked, wary of the answer.

' _Not much, Schneizel R &D don't use the regular servers so they haven't been able to get much on it other than accounted from soldiers they kidnap_.' C.C said, basically revealing that her son had already hacked into the lesser networks or otherwise bugged them.

'… _You know….it this point, I'm not even surprised they kidnap people_.' Marianne muttered, sounding both frustrated and tired at the latest news, kidnapping wasn't even the worse thing her son and daughter had done, in fact it was on the lesser side of their growing list of crimes against their family.

' _Well he's his father son, though he'll sooner die than admit that. How's old Charles dealt with all this?_ ' C.C said as she went back to channel flipping

' _Oh he's trying….but not hard enough. He and that troll V.V still can't find out anything about how my kids are even funding any of this, let alone their supplier!_ ' Marianne yelled in her head as she could almost feel the women walking back and forth in anger. But she did have to hand it to those two, keeping most of their secrets from both the Directorate and the OSI was no small easy feat.

' _So we know an attack against them right in their own home might not go as planned. We don't know their strength, nor their funds, equipment and etc…is that about right?_ ' C.C listed off.

' _Charles was thinking of sending a geass agent after them_.' Marianne stated thought C.C just laughed at the notion.

' _That would be a very stupid move._ ' C.C replied as she paused on one channel playing an old drama.

' _Explain, are they that capable?_ ' Marianne asked her.

' _I do not know but if this agent was to be responsible for the injury or death of Reyla, whose still pregnant with his child or little Alice…then I can assure you Charles will have more to worry about than a simply rebellion, the boy may very well fight his way to Pendragon to kill him on live television._ ' C.C bluntly explained as she could see that there was darkness in that boy's heart, going after the things that brought him joy would not end well for anybody.

' _Surely you jest C.C. that would mean fighting his way through the entire Pacific theatre!_ ' Marianne interjected, she knew her children were strong but there were limits!

' _What can I say, those three have broken every other expectation on them. And don't forget we still don't know where they disappeared to for nearly a decade, we don't know who they have as allies to their cause that could help them._ ' C.C reminded her as that part of their lives was still a blank slate for them as C.C couldn't just up and ask them about it.

' _I see…then I'll talk to Charles about cancelling the order. But we did make some progress_.' Marianne revealed.

' _Oh?_ '

' _No, we had a break the other day, V.V has people going over the tanks they captured. I haven't seen the full report but those machines….they're something else_.' Marianne said as she saw the same footage Charles did.

' _And now we got this Chinese business to deal with. Things this side sure are going to get more interesting_.' C.C said just as the news channel she flipped started to talk about the build-up of federation forces near Area 11 was an unexpected move that might be a sign for war.

' _That's for sure_.' Marianne agreed with her before she cut the mental connection.

* * *

(Imperial Bureau – A.S.E.E.C. Provided Research Zone)

"Lloyd."

.

.

.

"Lloyd."

.

.

.

"[sign]…Lloyd!" Cecile yelled as she finally ran out of patience. It had been over two weeks since they got back from their field studies in Narita and almost as much time since they were able to move most of the destroyed or abandoned Black Knight equipment to their specially modified floor of the Imperial Bureau. She was mad because Lloyd had been working on them near none stop since they got back.

"What, that!" The man in question yelped as he jumped up in fright before he turned and saw it was only his assistant. "Oh, Cecile, how are you this fine morning?"

"It's 3 in the afternoon sir. You've been working on that knightmare for the past 18 hours without break." Cecile flatly told him as she looked over the mono-eyed war machine and true to her words, it was the same one she saw him working on before she left the previous night.

"I have?" Lloyd blinked in confusion as he looked down at his wrist watch and sure enough, she wasn't lying. "When then, why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Uhhh….We did sir…but you didn't listen so…" One of the mechanics said as they had attempted to draw his attention but all efforts had proven fruitless.

"They left you to your devices, my orders." Cecile told him as she took a sip of her coffee to both keep her energy up and annoyance with her boss down. She called off their effort when the 8th one which involved an air horn and some chocolate pudding, failed. "Any who….Have you completed Dane Enneagram knightmare yet?"

"No I have not." Lloyd responded as he went over to his computer desk and sat down.

"And _why_ is that? She placed the order for it over two weeks ago!" Cecile yelled at him, she was this close to smacking him over the head. You didn't just…blow off a knight of round and got away with it!

"It's because she's a knight of round that there have been delays. If she was anyone else, I'll would have just slapped an upgraded pair of servo motors on a Gloucester, given it a new OS and handed that to her." Lloyd shamelessly admitted as she started up the device and started typing some more notes.

"Ignoring the part where you wouldn't be bothered to give the client a good machine," Cecile said slowly as she messaged her forehead. "What's your plan then?"

"Welllll…I was thinking of giving her something on par with the Lancelot but we don't have the parts needed to build another one from scratch so I put in an order to have some shipped in from Area 6 but then." Lloyd explained as she knew that part. "I had the wonderful idea of seeing if I can't use some of these bits and pieces to make it even better!" And then Lloyd lost her again as he gestured over to the pile of parts that had gotten from disassembling another BK knightmare.

"So let me get this straight…" She said as she turned to face the pile of spare parts. "…You want, to use, captured but untested enemy equipment, to build the _knightmare_ that you plan on _giving_ to a _Knight_ of the _Round_?"

"Of course I do." Lloyd answer sealed his fate.

 **SLAP!**

"OW! Cecile, what was that for!?" Lloyd yelled as she held his red cheek. Cecile had turned around so fast he didn't have time to see it before she landed the mother of all slaps on his face, knocking him to the fall from his seat.

"For not thinking this through!" The usually calmed and collected woman yelled back at him as she pointed to the pile of spare parts. "We don't even fully understand how it works and you want to put it in the personal unit for a Knight of Round!"

"Well how else are we going to find out how it functions in combat?" Lloyd answered and asked at the same time, thought this time he was fast enough to avoid another slap.

"At ease Cecile, as much as the Earl is loose a few screws, he isn't wrong there." A new member of the conversation said out of the blue, interrupting the two just as Cecile reached for a crowbar.

"My Lord!" Cecile yelped as she dropped as weapon and immediately bowed to the approaching knight of round. She didn't question how she got in without making and sound though.

"I said at ease," Nonette repeated as she came up to them. "I already heard everything, I'm going to ignore the part about the Gloucester and skip right to what I want to hear, you say that you can use this," She asked as she pointed to a partially dismantled BK knightmare. "To design me a better knightmare?"

"Without a doubt, even if we can't use all of what we learned, the bare minimum is still quite the lovely addition to my plans." Lloyd answered her as he got back up to his feet, the slap forgotten.

'Anything that'll help me get back at that masked bastard.' Nonette thought to herself as she replayed her humiliation of a battle against their masked foe. She was powerless against him and only alive because he **let** her live. "See it down, I'll send you additional 35,000 pounds this afternoon but be warned…" She started but paused as her expression turned dark, making a chill go down both the scientist backs. "You better deliver my money's worth or I'll make sure the only projects your will be working on for the rest of your life…is the Ferris wheel in New York, are we clear?" She asked them, both knowing that it was not only possible for someone with her sway but also a mercy as she could easily have them arrested, a flaw in the justice system that favours the nobility which was carried over from medieval time Lloyd just realized.

"Crystal…" Lloyd answered as he gathered his wits about himself.

"Good, I'll hate for there to be a misunderstanding of some kind, have a good afternoon." Nonette responded as she dropped the dark aura to her person and gave them both a smirk before she turned on her heel and left the lad. Both waited for a couple of moments after she left before they spoke.

.

.

.

"Cecile, remind me to never cross that woman." Lloyd said as she fell back into his seat, the fear of losing his job bringing dread to his soul.

"Noted sir…"

* * *

(Imperial Bureau – Lower Levels)

"I see that things didn't go as you expected." Euphemia greeted the knight of round at the door.

"Oh no, they went as well as you expect with a mad-men being the lead scientist we have." Nonette responded as both women begun walking away from the science division level towards the elevator.

"Give him a break. He's been analysing all the wrecks we brought with all week. I can't imagine he has had any free time." Euphemia defended as they walked passed a window and could look out at the growing flower garden the pink haired princess had started.

"[sign] You're right. I cut them some slack." Nonette conceded as the two reached the elevator. "How's the investigation on your end?"

"It's…not doing so well. We keep hitting brick walls every time we think we have a lead." Euphemia answered as she breathed a sigh of had been weeks since Narita and almost all Black Knight attacks had stopped. The worse part was because they didn't know why.

"What about the terrorist activity in Shinjuku?" Nonette asked as she recalled Jeremiah mentioning it in the earlier meeting.

"Our scouts report that although they are Black Knights," Euphemia confirmed for her as the Elevator rose higher and higher. "They are only operating small medical centres and soup kitchens. Same with the other ghettos." She shot down that hope as Euphemia herself had their agents confirmed this for them. The only Black Knight activity in 7 ghettos were just efforts to assist those living there. How they got the funds and supplies to do so for hundreds of thousands of people was up for debate.

"Wait, wait," Nonette paused her as she reached for her head. "They now do _soup kitchens_?" She asked the sub-viceroy who nodded her head, making Nonette rub her forehead in impressed annoyance. "They really follow that Robin Hood gimmick, I'll give them that."

"Yes and as you very well know, any attack against such operations will not have my approval," Euphemia stated now as she would never stand for such a cowardly assault on people who aren't even terrorist, much less fight back. "Guilford also pointed out that such an attack would only further demonise us in the eyes of the public and international community." She gave the reason that Guilford came up with as some of than more…gun-oh members of the government wanted them to send in troops to 'inspect them'.

"Politics was something I never really understood. They can call us out for terrible living conditions when they themselves have the same living conditions for large sways of population? That's just a load of BS." Nonette commented as the elevator slowed to a stop and the door opened, allowing them to exit.

"Be that as it may," Euphemia started as they both walked out onto the 11th floor. "We don't need to raise tensions on the international stage. The federations is already planning something. We don't need the EU getting on that band wagon as well." She finished as the thought of a three way war was not something anyone wanted, such a thing could go either way because of all the unknowns.

"Is there anything else I should know about?" Nonette asked as they came to a stop in front of the knight of round's office.

"Well there is one thing that our scouts reported that seemed rather…off." Euphemia replied as she looked away in confusion.

"Oh, do tell."

"It seems that the BK have started to collect rubble from the ruined buildings in three different ghettos and shipping it somewhere." Euphemia started as she explained how their scouts spotted small trains being loaded with the debris and sent of using the old subway lines.

"Rubble? I get that the ghettos are wrecked buy where did they get the time and resources for this?" Nonette agreed with her. That was strange thought there were a couple of applications she could think of.

"That's what intelligence if trying to find out. They think that the NAC has something to do with it but they have yet to find any evidence to substantiate their claims." Euphemia went on as Cornelia wanted all of them shot for their treason but sadly they had absolutely nothing to present as evidence.

"And when has something like that stopped Nelly?" Nonette asked with a raised eyebrow as she could think of a few times when her old friend had someone(all numbers for foreigners) killed under suspicion for serious crimes.

"The bureaucrats convinced her, their argument was without them, the eleven economy would collapse, meaning to tax to send to the homeland." Euphemia clarified for her.

"I doubt the emperor would care all that much about tax. As long as Area 11 can keep up its monthly sakuradite quotas, we should be in the clear." Nonette shot back as she didn't see Charles as a man who would mind a colony such as themselves missing a couple of tax collections.

"The emperor yes, the ministry of finance may have a different take on things." Euphemia countered with a frown, she could swear that most working in that branch were either greedy or heartless.

"By the way…I heard that Jeremiah is in charge of investigating Zero, you think he has any new leads for us?" Nonette asked as the two women walked into her office. It wasn't any different from Cornelia's other than it had less paintings and more maps of the region.

"I don't really know…maybe." Euphemia said as she stopped to consider the offer. "We could always stop by his office and ask."

"Well I got some free time right now so why don't we do just that." Nonette said as she went to her desk to grab a data pad that she had requested earlier.

* * *

(Later that day – One of the BK Kanto region's HQs)

"Yes…Yes we will….and we thank you for your support….No we will not continue business with you….well maybe next time, you should deliver our paid for goods on time…good day." Nunnally said over the phone before she cut the call. She was wearing her Jedi robes and was currently seated in her brother's office. She paused for a moment before he rubbed her forehead to ward off the headache she knew was coming.

"Hard day?" Nakamura asked with a sympathy smile as she handed the younger girl a pill for the headache and a small glass of water. Nunnally graciously took the offered goods with a quick 'Thank you'.

"Like you wouldn't believe. We have to get a new medical drugs supplier. Our last one had a habit of delivering things passed the due date." Nunnally replied as she put the pill in her month and took a large sip of water to wash it down. She was the only one of the trio who didn't necessarily wore a mask, just a robe with a hood.

"And we need to set up another factory in China, the rate of recruits passing basic means more uniforms and gear is needed." Nakamura stated as she handed her temporary superior another set of documents from the training camps that reported that another two companies(240) had finished their training regimen and just needed a small time combat mission to break them in.

"We'll set up one in country. The North should do, imperial patrols there are dying down." Nunnally replied as she read through the reports and recalled that Hokkaido had seen a decrease in imperial activity due to the chaos they were causing in the former Kanto and Chubu blocks.

"Okay, that'll mean we need to recruit another 120 workers to man the place. I'll schedule a meeting with HR (Human Resource) and Finance so we can see how we're gonna buy these people." Nakamura replied with a smile which said she enjoyed watching the force user squirm from all the paperwork.

"How the hell does he do it? I'm only been doing this for an hour and already I feel a headache coming on." Nunnally complained as she let her head fall to the desk in exhaustion, though she was careful enough to avoid the numerous stacks of paperwork and yellow folders.

"Haha…well Zero is the 'Man of Miracles'. Mere paperwork and the bureaucratic process can't slow him down." Nakamura answered with a fake recruitment officer's bold and loud voice, laughing soon afterwards.

"Please stop."

"Hahaha, sorry I couldn't help it." Nakamura apologised as she wiped the tear from her eye and stood straight again. "Still there is some good news."

"What is it?" Nunnally asked the elder women, they needed some good news.

"Remember those pilots we sent to Southern Africa to practice actual flight?" Nakamura asked her as they had spoken about this the other day. When Nunnally nodded her head, she went on. "Well out of the 410 we sent, 376 passed. Should the remaining 34 remain behind and try again?"

"That is good news, Zero will be pleased that we finally have able bodied people to fly our aircraft." Nunnally stated as she leaned back into the chair and picked up another report to review. "Yes, have then remain behind and try again but if they fail again, they'll be transferred to another branch."

"Done." Nakamura replied as she wrote down that order on her data pad. "Also we another shipment of weapons coming into the country in about two days."

"What's the cargo?" Nunnally asked as she didn't think they had brought anymore weapons and if they did, she would have words with her brother as they were supposed to be placing more funds into their humanitarian efforts in the ghettos.

"Mostly munitions for small arms and a couple hundred anti-tank missiles." Nakamura replied, saving her boss a lengthy lecture as the shipments was what they all agreed to continue bringing into the country.

"Make sure that those supplies are stored properly, I don't want to hear about any injured or death because of mishandling." Nunnally instructed as they had already gotten reports of such incidents in their earlier days, now most of the works at least knew how to handle the crates and boxes. "And what of S.K.? He requested some time with the POWs but I've yet to hear back from him."

"He is still on route to the POW camp mam, it'll take him another hour or so to get there if he's going by road then by sea." Nakamura said as Suzaku had wanted to see if he couldn't get any good intelligence from their POWs from the Narita air strip.

"Then I'll have to wait before I can file that away…" Nunnally said as she placed the report down and looked directly at Rio "And our naval force?" She asked the assistant, all jokes aside and it was now just business.

"We have completed the construction of around 4 missile attack submarines and are testing their stealth capabilities in the Indian Ocean as we speak. The last of the three carrier submarines will be complete before the 17th of November mam." Nakamura responded, her voice and face flat and straight to the point as well. Their true strength was something that had been building up for just over three years. They couldn't afford a delay now of all times.

'Meaning that we'll have the subs needed to transfer everything for Operation: Island Getaway.' Nunnally thought to herself with a cold sweat. Even now the very idea of such a attack was just…awful. If they failed they'll lost more than half their naval fighting strength but if they won….thousands of imperials would die. It was a thought she didn't particularly enjoy. "And the Ballistic Missile Subs?"

"All five have completed their sea trials, we'll be able to arm them by the end of the month." Nakamura reported as she went over to a secure file cabinet and pulled out their reports from the R&D centres before she handed them over to Nunnally. "Now, why don't we get on with matters?" and just like that, the serious attitude left the room as Rio gave the girl a smile that went a shiver down her spine. "The monthly paperwork sent on from the engineering corps activities and an 28 page proposal on why they need a 13% increase in funds."

'Dammit! How does he do it!?' Nunnally thought to herself in despair as she knew she would be stuck here for the rest of the day. She was starting to regret ever volunteering for this so that Lelouch could spend more time with Alice and Reyla.

* * *

 **28th September 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Somewhere in Area 3:**

 **Unknown Location:**

 **Geass Directorate North American Command:**

In a darkened room that served as the pseudo 'throne room' of the massive-(and off the books)-underground complex, V.V sat, contemplating. For the past 10 years, V.V had been the sole leader of the Geass Directorate—a secret initiative to study, manipulate, and enhance the mysterious power of Geass. A power that gave his rather fanatical agents and assassins capabilities more akin to fiction then reality. It was because of the Order and Geass that V.V and Charles not only defeated any opposition to Charles ascent to power, took out any potential rivals to that power and 'took care of' any nosy commoners, nobles, investigators or reporters that would have otherwise blown the whistle one of their many, many illegal and immoral projects.

It was also because of the many uses of Geass that the two had been able to plant spies and gain informants in just about every branch of government and major corporations which allowed them to keep track of almost every dangerous individual in the empire. Those same spies, agent, informants, saboteurs and assassins were spread to almost continent in the world aside from neutral Australia seeing how the large island had no purpose or incentive for any action from them.

But for some God forsaken reason, he was never informed or anticipated the rise of this…Order of the Black Knights.

When he discovered such a force was able to form, organize and attack imperial holding in Area 11…he was less than pleased. How could his agents not for see such? How could this happen? But more importantly, who was this…Zero?

It had been mouths and he had place over a dozen of his Asian agents into investigating him and all they had to show for it was speculation and estimates. Their failing cost that group their lives. It was embarrassing that his niece and that Gottwald had been making more progress than his own seasoned agents. Still, they were getting results and he couldn't complain about that. Because of them, they'll narrowed our elevens from the suspect pool and have narrowed that list down to individuals of imperial birth. However,

The rate of which that masked man and his marry bands of fools were gaining ground and beating back Cornelia was…upsetting to say the least. As much as he hated to admit to himself, his suggestion to send in Cornelia had back fired as he had hoped her sheer presence and military skill would be more than enough to beat down this little uprising before it begun, partly because he was banking in this new group behaving like all the others….

That backfired on him.

Zero has proven to be far more capable than any other rebel group that has risen since Washington, hell it was like the two were one and the same since they both were of imperial blood but chose to foolishly rebel. Cornelia was no match for him as Zero clearly leaned towards asymmetrical warfare and guerrilla tactics combined with state of the art equipment and knightmares V.V never thought an enemy would have before they did.

Narita, his subsequent victory over a knight of round and hand in the death of an imperial general as skilled, seasoned and popular as Dalton…it was just the bloody nail in the coffin. His niece may not know it yet but he did. Central Japan was a lost cause at this point. She just wasn't suited for this, if Zero came out in the open and fought like a legitimate army, maybe but if things kept on going on as they were…

He didn't like to think about that.

The way things were going, he had three options open to him:

Option 1 – Have Cornelia replace with her sister, Marrybell, who just so happens to be counterterrorism and if available now that the riots against their rule have finally calmed down in Area 17.

Option 2 – Send in his best upcoming assassin/slash spies Rolo and Reginald. Even though he knew next to nothing about their targets and they might be needed for their summer offensive if his spies in France were right about a military build-up occurring that side.

Option 3 – Send Cornelia some of his Directorate's more experimental knightmares and pilots so that she had a better chance against such a threat.

Either way, he didn't have a lot of time to think about this. They could not afford to lose Area 11. He and Charles has been waging wars for the past decade to secure the Thought Elevators they needed to kill 'God' and purge the world of lies. Without them, his and Charles' dream of uniting humanity would never be realized. This was the same with that wretched woman. She was getting in the way of things, she was distracting Charles from their contract. If he simply done nothing, he would have been left all alone.

So he'd killed the woman. Right in her own home. Charles clearly agreed with him as he helped to cover it up with little Nunna, still it was a shame she needed to be shot as well but the story needed some proof to it.

The fact that she and her brother have been missing for the better part of a decade was another, lesser matter as he called off the search after year 4. As far as he knew, they'll probably are in the EU somewhere since they'll stick out like sore thumbs in the federation. Maybe they found a hideout somewhere in Australia.

V.V chuckled to himself as he pulled up reports on the progress of the Britannian military build-up in Area 4(Alaska), Area 13(Iceland) and Area 15(Gibraltar). If their plans were successful, the EU would launch a foolish attack against their newly acquired North African holdings, while they attack mainland Europe itself. Recapturing the British Isles would be the greatest comeback the empire could think of. And with a dual invasion keeping the bulk of the Russian forces busy in the east, the lack of Russian troops would leave EU extremely vulnerable to attack via France and Belgium. With his agents spreading chaos and discord and Knights of Round leading the charge, it'll be over before winter sets in.

As he reclined in his chair, specially built for someone of his build, he closed his eyes and let himself relax. Things on the board of life were shifting, moving in ways he didn't foresee coming but in the long run, they still had time to move and pieces to sacrifice to keep their strength up.

The phone rang.

Like a viper, V.V's hand reached out and snatched it. The phone in his office was only to be used in case of emergencies, and he'd just given orders that he was not to be disturbed.

"What is it?" V.V demanded.

" _Sir, we have movement in India_."

"Movement? What kind?" He asked. What could have been big enough happening in the former imperial holding for him to be informed of so soon?

" _Sir, we've received word that Rakshata Chawla and her research team are leaving the country. A possible destination is Area 11_."

'Area 11? Zero. Only he has the importance for such a journey to be warranted.' V.V thought to himself as he put the dots together pretty quickly. "Can you take her out?"

" _Negative, there's too much safety measures. We don't even know which airstrip they'll using. It seems this wasn't planned_."

'Damn. It seems she'll live to see Area 11 then.' V.V thought to himself as he would rather killed her now if they had the chance but it seems she lucked out this time. "Have our people monitor any port of entry in Area 11."

" _It shall be done, Lord V.V_."

"Let's see who things play out, Zero." V.V said to himself as he got up from his chair and walked over to the side of the room where a hidden door opened up and allowed him to walk into a secret passage, leaving the throne room bar of any living creature.

* * *

 **29th September 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Skies over Central Japan:**

" _ **My Lord, we're approaching the air strip now. We'll be on the ground in 20 minutes**_." The captain of the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III announced over the intercom to the cabin behind him.

"It's fine, just be sure to watch out for anything and get us safely down." Edgar N. Dalton, second eldest son of Andreas Dalton replied. He along with the rest of the Glaston Knights has on route to Area 11 to aid Princess Cornelia in quelling the eleven uprising taking place. There were originally on leave at home in Area 1(Kansas) which then turned into family leave as they stayed for an extended period to give their father a proper burial. Soon afterwards they received orders to transfer to the region where their father met his end.

" _ **Yes, My Lord**_." The captain replied before the intercom cut as the crew went back to flying the plane.

"Finally, I've been itching to pay back those damn numbers." Alfred G. Dalton stated as she leaned back into his seat. The long flight from Muscat to Tokyo hadn't been the most comfortable one in the cargo hold of a transport plane but they all insisted they travel with their respective machines and gear.

"Just be sure to save some for me, will yeah?" Bart L. Dalton replied with a smirk, thought like his brother, he too was filled with a desire to destroy the Black Knights and avenge their father's death.

"Quiet," The youngest of the bunch spoke up as he kept on reading the information they had on their enemy off his data pad. "We shouldn't be underestimating the elevens." Claudio S. Darlton told them all as he could imagine that they were over central Area 11 at this point and no more than 30 minutes away from landing.

"Yeah right, what they can really do when it comes down to it than besides run and hide like cowards?" The second youngest and quick tempered, David T. Darlton rebuked.

"You forget that we buried our father because those same cowards managed to kill him. I will not bury anymore family because they let pride get the best of them." Claudio countered, it was a fact that none of them wanted to accept but it was a truth they had too. And if there was one thing that their father drilled into their collective heads, it was to take truth and facts as gospel on the battlefield. Pride and Anger were the faster ways to defeat, he woul-…he always said.

"Still, I wonder why Princess Cornelia hasn't been able to stamp them out by now. They even have a knight of round here." Edgar N. Darlton thought aloud. The middle child of the group thinking over what they knew about the situation on the ground. "Makes me wonder if we're just overkill."

"The fact that they haven't been able to should be an indication that this…Zero knows what he's doing." Claudio answered him.

"Oh please, he's been using hit and run mostly, what could he possibly do against the might of-!" One once more, David would have argued that statement if not for the loud and very serious announcement that interrupted him.

" _ **Attention, this is the captain, all passengers' brace for emergency manoeuvres, Anti-air ordnance has locked onto us.**_ " The captain stated over the intercom as they could hear the warnings going off in the cockpit through the speaker.

"What the hell?" Bart asked as he got up to his feet.

"Surface to Air missiles? Here?" Alfred asked himself as he buckled himself in before he told his brothers to do the same.

(Moments earlier)

"Yes, My Lord." The captain replied over the speaker before she cut the connection and put the microphone down. "Well, here's to making the trip without shit from the Federation."

"Still can't believe they let us fly over their air-space, saved us a lot of time." The co-pilot stated, he still couldn't believe that had gotten clearance to do such.

"They just want to act all nice to help draw attention away from this little invasion attempt they have going on." The captain replied as she went back to reading the instruments for any problems and regular checked vital flight systems in case of issues. The plane may be in autopilot but she didn't become a man with 7,000 flight hours without issue by being lax.

"Honestly I don't care so long as I get to spend some R&R with some local girls." The first officer and co-pilot of the plane retorted with a chuckle as he kept his hands on the control column, even if he wasn't the one flying.

"What, you mean elevens?" The captain asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Course not, why would I want to even touch a number? I'm taking about this club my buddy told me about, you'll love it." The first officer answered as if he thought the actual locals were some kind of animal.

"Haha, I'm sure I will, you tend to know the best spots abroad." The captain laughed as she saw that they had a speed of around 833km/k and were still has a flight level of 6,000m. Much too high and fast to land but they still had room to change that.

"What can I say, I'm a seasoned pilot and I've seen the world." The first officer replied as he reached for the radio switch. "Why don't we call in, we should be close enough."

"Got it," The captain agreed with him before he turned the radio to that of their destination's channel for her. "Aerodrome control tower, this is Flight IMF-G12, requesting permission to descend to a flight level of 3,000m in preparation for landing." The captain requested over the radio. They had to wait a couple seconds before they got a response.

" _ **Flight IMF-G12, this is Aerodrome control tower. We see you on our scope. Permission granted for a new flight level of 3,000m**_." The air traffic controller at the military compound they were scheduled to land at responded.

"Thank you control. Also, we're requesting permission to land on runway 04L." The captain went on as the first officer looked over the dials and screen for any problems as he input the new flight altitude into the autopilot, allowing the plane to begin to drop to the lower setting as well as reducing the power of the engines to 55 percent.

" _ **Flight IMF-G12, runway 04L is open and clear. You have permission to land**_." The flight controller confirmed for them before a warning went off.

 **Alert, Alert! Lock-on attempt detected, Lock-on attempt detected!**

"What's that?" The first officer asked, yes he was a military man but he flew transports and supply flights and had never actually been fired at. The captain on the other hand, was a former fighter pilot and knew that warning meant dread to the unprepared.

"Oh shit! Evasive manoeuvres now!" She ordered as she immediately disengaged the autopilot and took control.

"Captain, what's going on?!" The first officer asked but before she could give him an answer, another much more serious warning went off.

 **Alert, Alert! Lock-on detected, Lock-on detected!**

"Shit," The captain swore as she would look out the window every couple of seconds in hopes of spotting the threat. After the 4th look, she decided to announce it. "Attention, this is the captain, all passengers' brace for emergency manoeuvres, Anti-air ordnance has locked onto us."

"Wait, what!" Finally the first officer caught up with the situation. "How? No-one told us we'll be flying over hostile air-space!"

"Worry about getting this plane on the ground! Give me 80 percent engine thrust!" The captain ordered him as they both spotted a streak of fire heading towards them from the left hand side of the windscreen.

"Yes sir, increasing engine thrust to 80 percent." The first officer's training kicked in and he immediately did what his captain had asked of him.

 **Alert, Alert Missile Inbound! Missile Inbound!**

"Shit, deploy flares!" The captain ordered, hoping they had such an option to call upon.

"Deploying!" Lucky for them, the mechanics back in Muscat had forget to remove them which meant that when the first officer pressed the button, 12 blinding flares were released from the wings and body of the plane, throwing off the missile which instead flew off after of the flares.

 **Alert, Alert Missile Inbound! Missile Inbound!**

"Another one!" The first officer yelled as they saw another one on the radar heading right towards them. Clearly whoever was firing on them wanted them dead.

"Bank! Bank!" The captain ordered as she ordered the plane to bank to the left to help avoid the deadly threat. "Deploy flares!" She ordered and just like the first, the missile veered off course but it also came much closer than the first one.

" _ **Captain, the hell is going on?**_ " Bart demanded over the speaker.

"We're under attack from an unknown enemy SAM site. My Lord, with all due respect, please you and the rest of the Glaston Knights must board your machine. If needed, we'll jettison the knightmares." The captain replied. As sad as it was for them, they knew there plane wasn't built for such an attack at relatively low attitudes.

" _ **You're not serious, we're thousands of meters in the air! There's no way we'll survive landing!**_ " Alfred replied, sounding like he thought the very idea was crazy which by all accounts, it was.

"We'll try to bring us lower to the ground but that's all I can do. If need be, you'll all have to eject from your knightmares and hope the cockpit blocks can get you safely to the ground!" The captain yelled back, in any other situation she would have been concerned about her future after that but right now wasn't one of those situations.

 **Alert, Alert Missile Inbound! Missile Inbound!**

"Sir, we have another, we inbound! We can't shake it!" The first officer yelled as she released the flares but the missile stayed on course.

"Goddammit!"

(With the Glaston Knights)

"What' you mean we gotta board our knightmares? In these conditions?!" Claudio asked as they all unbuckled themselves and run for their respective machines.

"We don't have a choice! Get to your machines, on the double!" Edgar shot that question down.

"Dammit, we haven't even landed yet and we gotta deal with this shit!" David swore must as they all felt the explosion from a neat impact.

 **BOOM!**

"The Hell!" Alfred asked as he stopped for a moment before Edgar pushed him forward.

"Keep moving!" The light blue haired boy yelled at him.

'Never thought I'll do a combat drop like this.' David thought to himself as he powered up his knightmare and secured the hatch and seatbelts. " **Is everyone online?** "

" **I'm here**." Alfred said over the radio.

" **So am I**." Claudio was the next to confirm.

" **Everything is in the green, I'm good to go!** " Bart was the third one.

" **I'm having trouble with mine! The latches won't disengage!** " Edgar yelled over the channel as he tried and tried again to remove the cables keeping his knightmare in place.

(On the ground)

"How we doing with the target?" A BK officer asked as he stood in an S-300 Missile System vehicle. There were three present with two acting as the actual SAM whole the third was a fitted with a radar dish for tracking the targets.

"Missiles 1 through 3 have missed their mark. Shall we fire a forth?" A soldier replied as they got a fifth one ready just in case.

"Do it. We got orders to make sure the Glaston Knights don't become a thorn in master Zero's plans." The commanding officer replied. They had been sent out here for the soul purpose of shooting down that transport after all.

"Yes sir," The soldier replied before he turned back to the computers and input the necessary codes "Target lock-on still confirmed…and firing." And with last input placed in, the soldier fired off another missile.

(With the pilots)

"Aerodrome control tower, this is Flight IMF-G12. Code Yellow. I repeat, Code Yellow! We're under attack, requesting immediate aid!" The captain called out over the radio as they struggled to control the plane as the previous missile explosion had lodged shrapnel into the number two engines, forcing them to shut it down or risk it blowing up.

" _ **Flight IMF-G12, this is Aerodrome control. Fighters are being scrambled to your aid but they'll ETA is 370 seconds**_." The air traffic controller responded to their request with an answer they didn't like.

"370-!" The captain started as such a lengthy waiting period registered. "We won't last that long!"

 **Alert, Alert Missile Inbound! Missile Inbound!**

"Shit, Deploy flares!" She ordered as they both saw the next one coming right for them at high speeds. Sadly for them, their luck just ran out.

"We can't! Don't have anymore!" The first officer replied as he pressed the button but nothing happened, getting him to look down at the gauges and see that the warning light for 'No flares' lights up every time he pressed the button.

"Shit, everyone brace for impact!" The Captain yelled out just before impact.

 **BOOM!**

"Shit, we're hit, we're hit!" The first officer reported as though he couldn't see it, that missile had torn a hole in the hull, leading to decompression on the cabin. The only reason the Glaston Knights weren't affected was because their cockpits were air tight and had their own self pressurization system.

"Aerodrome control. This is Flight IMF-G12, we're declaring an emergency. I repeat, we're declaring an emergency. We need an airstrip to land at fast!" The captain demanded as she saw that some of the flight systems started going haywire, forcing the first officer to conduct emergency shut-downs of them.

" _ **Flight IMF-G12, this is Aerodrome control, the closet airfield I can give you is Maebashi but the private runway is only 1,800m**_." The ATC replied to their inquiry.

"It's fine, what's the heading?" The captain replied, happy that they got some good news as their plane only needed a runway of little under 920m, 1,800m was more than enough.

" _ **New heading is-!**_ " The ATC started to relay to them but another warning went off, drowning out his voice.

 **Alert, Alert Missile Inbound! Missile Inbound!**

"Crap!" The first officer cursed as they saw no way out of this.

"Brace, Brace!" The captain ordered as they both held onto the controls for dear left just as the fifth and final missile struck home and struck home hard. The missile having hit the right wing and just wrecking most of it.

 **BOOM!**

"We're been hit! Engines 2 and 4 are not responding, major fuel leakage! Oh God," The first officer reported as he saw the gauges for those two engines go dead. He looked out the window and immediately saw why "We're lost most of the right wing!" He reported as he saw that most of the wing was on fire and one of the two engines was still going but only adding to the problem as bits and pieces were falling off the think.

"We're rolling, dammit I can't stop it!" The captain said as she fought with all her might to keep the plane level but was losing more and more ground as time went on. "What's our altitude?"

"2,200m and falling sir!" The first officer responded as he checked their altitude meter and saw they were quite a ways up. There was no way they'll get their cargo and passengers on the ground.

"Let's hope that's enough." The captain said as she reached for the microphone to give what might just be her last announcement. "My Lords, we're opening the cargo bay doors, you have to jump!"

" _ **We can't! Edgar can't unclamp his machine!**_ " Bart replied as he and Edgar tried to dislodge the final damn clamp to no avail. They couldn't even use their knightmares without compromising the structural integrity of the already falling apart plane.

"Then he rides with one of you, hurry! We can't hold her steady much longer!" Alfred yelled at the two who quickly abandoned Edgar's machine in favour and sharing Bart's for the journey down. Just in the nick of time to as at that moment, the number 2 engine broke off its fixing and rolled over the wing, smashing into the tail rudder and basically destroying the right rudder surface.

"We're rolling, I got no control!" The first officer yelled in fear as they plane started to bank and roll with next to nothing they could do to save their burning plane.

"Jump, Jump now!" The captain yelled at that as they saw the altitude gage falling more and more as their gage reading for the horizon started to slope to the side.

(With the Glaston Knights)

'Let's hope we survive..." Claudio said to himself as he mentally prepared himself for what could be the dumbest thing he's ever done. " **Jump boys, jump cause your lives depend on it!** " And just like that, four out of the five machines in the hold jumped out of the burning planes cargo hold and started to fall to earth. As they did so, all of them took a glance at the crushing craft since it the burning fuselage provided enough light got them to keep track of it.

" **Good Lord…** " Alfred said as they watch the plane go down as they themselves fell to earth.

" **There's no way they'll survive that…** " Bart noted with some grief in his voice.

" **Alright, on three we all eject to that pre-set coordinates**." David got them all to focus as even without an altitude reader, he could see from the lights of the surrounding roads that they were still well over 1,000m up. " **One…Two…Three!** " He finished the countdown as he pulled the ejection levels and hoped that his cockpit block could survive a crash from such a height. Sure they had parachutes but he had heard more than a few airborne troops joke about those things not deploying or otherwise failing. They all gave a silent prayer for the outstanding crew they had flown them this far as the large jet crashed into the wilderness of the former Chichibu-Tama-Kai National park, well over 80km west from their destination.

.

.

.

.

 **CRASH!**

(On the ground)

"Status?" The officer asked as the plane disappeared from the radar after it dropped below 40m.

"Target was destroyed. We're sending a small team to investigate the wreckage now." The soldier replied as he asked their satellite overhead to confirm for them such.

"Good," The officer replied as he turned to the rest of the BK troops. "Send that in to command. They're going to be quite pleased with us."

"Yes sir." The soldier manning communications replied as she turned to report the success of their mission to command.

"Alright boys, pack it up! This area will soon be crawling with imperials!" The commanding officer yelled at them as he could already see the helicopters flying towards the direction of the crash site in the distance. The man's only regret was that they were forbidden from making radio contact with the plane as he really wanted the message 'Welcome to Japan' to have been broadcasted just before the first missile was launched.

.

.

.

* * *

 **And that is that. That last part was a last minute thing as it seemed interesting to me to have a scene where the Glaston Knights are shot down and one of them dies but I changed that at the last minute as that seemed a bit too much. Another scenario was that they get shot down by BK jets making their combat debut but like with many of my surprises, that'll have to wait till Operation Island Getaway. And before you all google it, yes a Globemaster III is not only capable of carrying the load of five machines and their gear but also of making the flight from the middle east to Japan.**

 **Forgive me for not writing in the scene with Lelouch and his family enjoying a day out, I decided to move that to a future chapter since my world count was passed 8,5 k words at that point and I don't particularly like writing long chapters. I still kept the scene where we see Nunna in a position of power as whenever she is shown in that role in cannon, it's always overshadowed by others or even the 'assistant' she always has with her. As for future chapters, I'll try to show her in the leadership of things she'll enjoy such as he aid in the ghettoes or medical.**

 **In other news, the scene with V.V was shorter then I imagined it to be but I wanted to show that he isn't a total idiot. I can see how situations play out and he is capable of planning for them. As big a bad V.V is, he isn't the type to make many appearances as in cannon, he appears like twice in season 1 and makes four,maybe five appearances in season 2. We know he's important, we see his handiwork in the form of that bastard Rolo and other agents but we rarely actually see him as he prefers to work from the shadows. I also wanted to highlight that like Lelouch, Charles lied to V.V since he knew who killed Marianne and how it went down.**

 **V.V would think that Charles agreed with him when he used his geass on Nunnally and others to make it seem like it went down differently-(How could he not? He knew that geass was a thing and that Charles' power allowed him to screw with memories by either suppressing and replacing memories, everyone remembering the wrong chain of events leading up to Marianne's death such as Lelouch would be a massive clue as to how's handiwork that was)-. His second act of banishing Marianne children to a foreign land would also make V.V think he saw things his way, though even if that act was to protect them from V.V, it was a cold and uncaring thing nonetheless as no-one was even sent to retrieve or protect them during the one month war(I mean, like really. If you really wanted to 'protect' them, why did you send them to a country you had full intentions of invading for its Thought Elevator?**

 **If they really cared about them, then they could have easily been sent off to the countryside or some other far off corner of the empire stripped of their noble privileges where they would be out of sight and out of mind or even Australia, the famously neutral country of the Code Geass universe that Charles and V.V had no plans for and is never attacked or attacking in any of the Code Geass spine-offs or main story)**

 **We also know that although V.V who to set up Nunnally as a false witness, how did he plan on doing that? Besides Charles and Lelouch, we know of no other geass user who could make her believe she saw something that never happened. Charles admits that he rewrote Anya and Nunnally's memories of that night as he chose to protect their selfish desire to 'Kill God which means that he must have had a hand in Nunnally being crippled as Geass can make one think they can't walk but I can't imagine that during their seven years with the Ashfords that Lelouch or Reuben never had specialist look her over and discover that her legs are fine, just malnourished or something so we know her disability is real.**

 **So to sum it up, he knew how killed one of his wives. Did nothing to bring him to justice, helped that same murderer get away with it and when his son questioned him for it, he along with his still recovering sister were shipped off to a country that the father and murderer had plans to invade.  
At this point I'll be hard press to declare him a monster but this is the same man that made his own children fight, steal, compete and kill one another just to keep up appearances while doing absolutely nothing to stop the extreme discrimination and ultra-nationalism that plagues Britannian society. Which in of itself proves his and V.V self-centred world view as these very factors are what lead to the death of their own mother but they do nothing but promote that very same ideology. Hell when he got word of what occurred in the SAZ, the bastard laughed out loud and declared that and I quote: 'Yes your worthy of being called my child now', as for who he was speaking of between Lelouch(if he knew that this was the work of geass and thought that Lelouch actually planned it) and Euphemia(If he legitimately thought she organized a major backstab and mass murder the likes of which comparable to what Justinian I carried out to quell the Nika riots of 532) is not important, the point is that he thought that such a horrific act of barbarism and bloodshed was something that made them…worthy to be his child! There's no defending this man, like no plausible way that doesn't out the advocate as an ultranationalist and racist themselves.**


	23. The Strange Happenings

**Before I start anything, let me announce this. This will be the last chapter for Code Geass: The Force Unleashed for the year. I'm with family and right now I don't have much time for myself. I'll try to post one last chapter for the My Hero Academia story and revise some of my older work but no promises. Admittedly, I thought that I would have been able to publish up till chapter 26 before the year ended but I'm been super busy this time round. But I'm very happy with the support I've received for this story and how I've been able to write a story that you all enjoy.**

 **Pkd – You make a good point. Shirley had like at least two years to get to know him while Kallen only knew he existed for around 6 months(I think that's how long season 1 was) Luckily such an event would not be likely here as she and him can get to know each other, outside…work.**

 **Thristan – Thank you, I watch a lot of Air-crash Investigation so I tried to make it both good to read but somewhat realistic.**

 **Vein Bloodborne – The thought is an interesting plot device as Lulu gonna have one for political reasons(thought the fact that he would need one at all will piss him off to no end) And happy holidays to you too.**

 **IS6A6E – Sorry about the lack of lightsaber action and unfortunately, there isn't much of it in this chapter either. But I do promise that the next chapter will have no knightmare combat and solely be between people, meaning lightsabers are gonna be used.**

 **Geer123 – Yes, yes they are. They can't expect to enter a country that's slowly becoming a warzone and not have to deal with some serious shit. The paperwork is my way of helping to show the rebellion isn't all guns and battles but paper-pushing and meetings as well. This chapter will have some more Kaguya moments and I'll try to put him Rakshata as well. Also, happy holidays to you too.**

* * *

 **Chapter 23: The Strange Happenings**

 **1** **st** **October 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Crash site of Flight IMF-G12:**

"Hurry up with the photographing, the sooner that gets done, the faster we can clear the area."

"I got the Black boxes over here!"

"Good, you three! Go help them with that."

"Jesus…" Bart said after a moment. It had only been 2 days since the plan went t down and they arrived in Area 11 but this was the first time they had been granted permission by the Viceroy to see the wreck site. They are situated in the forested area west of the settlement formally known as Chichibu-Tama-Kai National park. The clearing they were in was created by the crash. Though the early snow fall was making it hard to tell as the scars from the incident were covered by the white sheet from nature.

"I know, this is my first plane crash as well." Alfred said as although they had seen their fair share of war and destruction, they had never had the chance to see a plane of that size go down, only the aftermath in passing.

"And clearly not the last. Already 5 others have been shot down all over central Japan." Claudio stated as that was one of the reasons the Viceroy wanted them to stay put and get medical check-ups. Granted it was only military craft being targeted but they didn't know when and where Zero decided that all non-Black Knight aircraft were to be purged from the skies.

"Those cowards…." David seethed. He had been rather angry as of late. "They didn't even the stones to wait for us to meet them in combat." He finished as he kicked a piece of wreckage, they didn't even get here in time to see to the removal of the pilot's bodies.

"As painful as it is to counter that statement brother, only a fool lets his foes gain strength if he has the chance to disrupt it." Edgar said, though he didn't like it any more than the rest of them did.

"Get used to it because this is the reality of the situation."

"My Lord!" The Glaston knights said as one as they saluted the Knight of Nine who had arrived some time before them.

"Save it, I've had to deal with media parasites hunting me down for the past 36 hours because of this incident. We need find out how they even shot you down and where they got such equipment." Nonette explained as she walked up to them. "Speaking of which, as shitty as the reception was, welcome to Area 11." She said, trying to break the ice with a bad joke.

"Can't say we disagree mam. We would have expected such a greeting from the Euros, hell even the Chinese." Bart answered as they all walked into the tent behind them to view over the progress of the recovery.

"Yes about that." Edgar asked as they all entered. "Have they found out anything?"

"Yes, they have found out the sight of the missile attack but we can't follow the tracks due to the early snowfall. But from the size of those tracks, we can say that it was quite a large vehicle firing at you guys." Nonette broke the news to them as she had seen the pictures from the site they found. Whatever was there was long gone and the snow messed with the tracks, making it near impossible to salvage anything of use.

"And because of that, we don't have any knightmares." Claudio finished as they had recovered them but the fall had basically rendered scrap metal. Hell, most of the parts weren't even feasible as spares.

"Don't worry about that, we have some spare gloucesters that we hand supply you with but I suggest you have Earl Asplund upgrade them first." Nonette recommended to them as she had spoken with the rather oddball noble before she left and after she got the update on the progress of her knightmare, she asked him if he could her a favour.

"The terrorist knightmares are that impressive." Bart asked her, wanting an honest opinion from an officer higher ranked then them and clearly the better pilot.

"That and more, especially their aces it seems. They pilot the custom frames you must have been reviewing." Nonette reminded them as she didn't want to see such talent struck down just because they didn't know what they were walking into.

"So…when do we get to work?" Alfred asked her, eager to get down and busy. They had an foe that needed to be stop and not much time to do it.

* * *

(Meanwhile in the north of the country – Near Morioka)

" **Keep up the heavy fire!** " One of the GINNs called out as they stood on a ridge and fire down at an imperial convoy.

" **Move in! Tear those knightmares apart!** " Another called out as three moved in for the kill, pulled out their blades and engage the sunderland protection detail. " **K-3, keep you position, your our rear watch**."

" **Sir!** " The fourth replied as he stood on a higher point of the field, surveying the surrounding area and combat areas.

'Things are going smoothly, this convoy wasn't expecting us today. Good thing we switched up the attack schedule.' Suzaku thought to himself as he cut down his fifth sunderland. They had been tasked with strangling the northern imperial bases of supplies by attacking their supple convoys. This was a smaller one as it only had about 12 trucks but the 11 sunderlands just made them too good a target not to attack.

" **Sir, enemy bird are inbound, ETA 40 seconds**." One of his men reported as he paused to look north-east and like the trooper reported, he could make out 7 attack choppers heading towards them but they were still pretty far out, around 4300m.

" **Are they? Hmmm** " Suzaku replied as he took a moment to read the situation. " **That's faster than normal. They must be shaping up. Have the anti-air unit deal with them. Focus on the objective, we can't let those supplies get through to the northern imperial bases**." He ordered as he went back into the fray. He preferred this kind of battle rather than leadership roles, that was Lelouch's thing.

" **Sir!** "

" **This is getting easy**." One of the pilots joked over the comms as they fought with a sunderland armed with a silver lance.

" **Careful, pride comes before the fall young one** " Another warned him as he dodged a blow before he stabbed the offending knightmare in the arm and ripped back, severely damaged the enemy unit.

" **Young one? You're like, 6 years older than us**." The third one joined in as she just used her rifle to keep the enemy pinned down before she took aim for the trucks. They didn't stand a chance.

" **6 years more experienced than you**." The second one countered with a chuckle as he severed the head of an enemy knightmare, forcing the knightmare to automatically eject the cockpit block.

" **There goes another attack chopper. How many is that this week?** " The first one asked as they all paused to look up and saw that the choppers, though now less than 3500m from them were busy dodging the wave after wave of anti-air missiles and gun fire. Some were not so lucky and had been hit already.

" **About the sixth. At this rate, we'll have a baker's dozen by the end of the week**." One of them said as they looked to the site, though one of them started to act odd.

" **Yuko, you alright?** " The elder one asked as he turned his machine to face him but got no response. So he moved closer to investigate, maybe his radio was damaged.

" **Yuko?-What the hell!** " The man started but had to pull himself as the pilot tried to cut him in half. He was able to avoid the first slash but it cost him an arm, the arm holding his sword.

" **Yuko, what are you doing? Stop!** " The other pilot yelled at him as he turned to try and fire on the rogue unit but the traitor beat him to the draw and blew holes in his armour, causing his frame to blow up before he could even eject.

" **Alert, K-11 has gone rogue, I repeat-K-11-!** " The elder reported over the radio as he tried to go for his rifle but suffered a blow to the left leg, throwing him to the ground.

" **Hmmm?** " Suzaku asked as he turned to face that side of the battlefield and what he saw shocked him. 'Oh Lord, what is he doing!' he thought to himself as he raced over the rogue unit to try and get the thing to stop before any more of their troops wound up dead " **K-11, halt immediately!** " But all he received from the rogue unit was gunfire which he had to avoid.

" **Shit, he isn't stopping, guess I have no choice**." He thought to himself as he got in close and pulled out his second blade. He got passed the knightmare's guard and before it could counter, he cut the unit in two by the waist. 'That'll keep him.' " **K-2, K-5. Detain him. He is to have no human contact**." He ordered two other machines that had not ended up damaged by this act of betrayal.

" **Yes sir**." One of them replied as they both moved to grab the upper half of the machine but not before disarming it of both arms to ensure the pilot could fight back.

'What was that all about? Was he a spy? Then why wait for such a moment?' Suzaku thought to himself as he tried to make sense of this. How could a traitor infiltrate their ranks so easily? " **No matter, I got a mission to complete**." He resolved to finish his internal debate another time as they still needed to destroy the remaining supply trucks and their escorts, which had taken the confusion from the friendly fire to regroup, meaning that he'll be here longer then he would have liked.

* * *

(Later – Black Knight Northern Honshu Command)

"And that was what happened." Suzaku finished his report of the incident as he sat back down. He was with the BK high command in one of their numerous secret bases spread across Japan. This one was also underground and built like a bunker complex, making it more than ready to withstand just about any form of attack their enemies could throw at them. Right now the group were in the main meeting room of said complex.

"That…is indeed troubling." Leila said after taking a moment to think. Ever since their meeting with, the leaders of the Black Knights had opted to remove their masks and hoods in private meetings if they felt like such.

"Yes, I was under the impression that all troops were vetted without their knowledge to weed out potential spies and informants." Lockon thought aloud as he stroked his chin.

"They are," Suzaku replied before he pressed a button on the keypad in front of him which showed the pilot's in question records on the large screen mounted on the wall. "I pulled the pilots file. There was nothing in it to suggest he was capable of this."

"Speaking of, what were the losses?" Warwick asked.

"[Sigh] He turned on his squad and was able to fire on three of them as well as anyone who got close. Two didn't make it and the third along with nine others have been transferred to the medical division for treatment. She won't see active combat for at least a month." Suzaku reported as he had to personally escort the injured. One never really did get used to the injuries fire and shrapnel could cause.

"Unfortunate. But the best we can do right now is find out, why one of ours turned." Zero threw in his opinion, he was the only one that still opted to wear his full gear, helmet included and was the one who was seen without the least.

"What are your orders?" Akito asked from his place standing guard behind Leila's seat.

"Have him transferred to III(Imprisonment, Interrogation and Intelligence). They'll get the answers out of him soon enough." Zero ordered coldly. And for good reason, their III division was trained to get info by any means allowed by international law and were well versed in exploiting loop-holes from said conventions. If your sent there, you will spill you guts….sooner or later.

"Yes sir." Akito responded as he radioed the order down to a trooper standing guard outside the room.

"Now onto other matters. What of the status of our northern raids?" Oscar asked, speaking up for the first time in the meeting.

"We've been successful so far in routing 4 different convoys in the past three days." Kallen reported as she the screen changed to a map of northern Honshu with the areas where they found and destroyed convoys marked.

"We've also been successful in stationing troops near the city of Ninohe. With this new establishment, we now have both the men and means to cut off the main rail line the colonials are using to supply their Hokkaido and northernmost Honshu bases by land." Liu Mei added as she used her own keypad to highlight the location she was talking about. This was good as it placed them in a favourable spot for future operations.

"Yes and because our spies have reported that they don't have enough ships to just send supplies by sea, this will help our northern units since the enemy will be short on supplies." Tierra stated as now it'll that much harder for Hokkaido to properly function under colonial rule, meaning more leg room for them.

"We've also been able to set up supply hubs outside of Kanto thanks to our overseas front companies and allies." Warwick reported as thanks to Kyoto, they had really been able to properly function as a growing fraction and trade imports and exports without anyone being the wiser.

"Where?" Zero asked.

"The first one is located in Oga. Its small but it should suffice for the foreseeable future." Warwick reported as the map changed to a satellite view of the small town. It was mostly abandoned but most of the facilities were good for use. It helped that they didn't build more structures and just internally reinforced the damaged ones as to not stick out too much. "The second one is Kuji, the local imperials don't even know what's happening in the ghettos or the surrounding countryside. The local populace and resistance groups have given their favour and most of later are requesting to join." The next view was for the small but important town of Kuji, which had a relatively small imperial presence outside the naval base for naval flotilla stationed there.

"And what of Kyoto?" Leila asked.

"Their shipments of GINNs are already well underway to completion. As to who they'll gift such machines to? That is up to them. The JLF is first name to pop into the mind, isn't it?" Zero replied as he had just seen to the safe shipment of the supplies via one of the many subway routes they had cleared for their use.

"That is true. And because of our friendly relations with them, we don't have to worry too much about the more radical members getting their hands on them." Suzaku added in as it was great that he could speak with his father every now and then. Sure he couldn't do it in public since as far as the world is concerned, Genbu was dead and him calling him would just cause issues for the both of them.

 **Knock, Knock.**

"Forgive my intrusion sir but I have a message for you." A regular office worker apologised as she walked into the room and saluted the group.

"Speak." Tierra gave permission, he hoped this was important.

"Sir," The worker said before she dropped her salute and delivered the message. "Dr. Chawla and her team have arrived."

"They're early." Lockon noted, last time he checked, they weren't due for another two weeks.

"Yes, they are. I wonder…" Zero said as he stroked his masked chin in thought.

"Sir?" Akito asked him to get his attention again.

"Have them escorted to the meeting room on floor 5. I'll be there shortly." Zero ordered the officer worker.

"Sir!" She replied as she saluted again and quickly left the room.

"So…what do you think?" Suzaku asked his long-time friend.

"She wants something, from the reports on her habits and skills, she would have not put herself at risk by coming here if she didn't have a damn good reason." Zero replied as they both knew that even meeting with them was a risk since the federation didn't want to tip their hand just yet. Plus if she was caught by the imperials, she either be forced to work for them or be killed.

"Do you think she wants one of the GINNs?" Alleujah asked as this wouldn't be the first time, they already had to deal with several previous incidents with people trying to steal them. Mostly it was the more radical resistance groups that they had already refused to work with for obvious reasons.

"No, she'll never go for the common models, she wants one of the more unique models to study." Zero said as everyone present knew he was talking about their own machines, the ones that might never see mass production due to their edge on the battlefield.

"Yes but the question still remains," Leila started. "Is she doing this for herself….or under orders from someone else."

"You don't think that…" Kallen started but paused when she realized it wasn't impossible, but highly unlikely.

"It's a pretty solid theory. The current Indian administration has been snugging up the Lower ranking Eunuchs for the past year or so. I can't think of another way of making themselves look useful be delivering to them a solid design breakdown of one of our machines." Liu Mei explained as they had discovered that bit of info from spies and the dark web. When you thought about it, it made sense. Sure the federation's apathy, greed, incompetence and cruelty rule over India has made them extremely unpopular but at the end of the day, politicians were notorious for being just as bad. It was possible that the current Indian 'ruler' didn't care for his people and was looking out only for himself.

"…But as of now, we don't know which of those sceneries we are facing. Our best bet is to observe, note and counter when the time is right." Leila stated as she got up from her seat and made way for the door, Akito falling in step behind her.

"Quite right Leila, but we are getting ahead of ourselves, yes?" Zero said as he followed her lead and got up from his chair, the rest following suite as the meeting was over. "Let us meet with her first and see what it is _she_ wants out of this."

* * *

(Tokyo Settlement – Tokyo Royal Art Museum)

"We will open art week with the dedication of the Tokyo Royal Art Museum. It was originally going to be christened the Clovis Memorial Museum of Art but our public relations department thought it best to change it in light of Prince, I mean Clovis' crimes." The Art curator explained to Princess Euphemia as he led her through the newly completed building. She was accompanied by Guilford as her sister wasn't taking chances with her safety.

"Yes, that was the sensible move, the last thing we need to something that will only add fuel to the fire." Euphemia said she wore a different set of attire then what she normally, opting to wear her official wardrobe along with a jacket due to the snowfall making things quite chilly.

"A wise observation, you highness." The Curator replied as he continued on with the tour. "That is why we are so grateful that you took time out of your busy schedule to judge the art for the tonight. You will be the one who will pick the first place winner from among these submitted works."

"Oh, this one's nice." Euphemia complimented as she paused to look over a painting of looked like to an Edo-era country home. "I particularly like this painting." The artist really captured the scene with the excellent brushwork and colouring.

"It's regrettable that out investigation has found that the artist for that work is one quarter eleven." The curator explained to her as he didn't even bat an eye at the work for something as foolish as who the artist grandparents were. Something the princess didn't appreciate.

"Then perhaps it shouldn't have been displayed here in the first place." Euphemia replied with a frown as such information didn't mean anything to here but clearly it did to their host.

"Well it's a delicate balance with our public-!" The man tried to smoothly explain but he was cut off when the princess held up her hand as a sign for his silence.

"Spare me your excuses sir, you mean to inform me that you have no intention for this wonderful piece of art to be here because of the artist's grandparents?" She asked him, making it clear that she was not very pleased with his excuses. "But you also have to have it here so you don't oust yourself and this establishment as discriminatory?" She asked him another question that they both knew he wouldn't answer lest he just bring himself trouble. "As far as I'm concerned each and every artwork here stands an equal chance of winning. Who their artist are and how much number blood that have in them is irrelevant." She finished as she walked right on by past him, aiming to view the art without a guide such as himself.

"But your highness-!" The curator tried to save face but he was once more cut off but this time but the hand that gripped his shoulder hard enough for him to wince.

"Her highness as spoken, if you wish to keep you post, I suggest you hold your tongue." Guilford informed the poor man. Making sure he knew that he knew that it was more than his job he could lose if he dare to talk back to royalty.

"Y-yes, of course. Shall be take a look at the other works on display?" The curator suggested as he took out his handkerchief to wipe away the nervous sweat that had formed on his brow from Guilford intensive glare. The knight let go of him and roughly brushed passed him to continue to stand by Euphemia's side.

"Thank you, Sir Guilford." Euphemia thanked the man as they resumed to tour the place, the curator gone as he could see he wasn't welcome.

"It was nothing, princess. Your sister had always wanted to you to become more assertive. I can see that you are well on your way." Guilford complimented as he was quite impressed by how she handled the situation. Did he share her views? No, he did not. But did he respect her? Without a doubt.

"I'm just going what I know to be right. If only sister could see that." Euphemia stated it was quite common for the two siblings to argue about the treatment of numbers and the general state of affairs with the empire.

"Yes…well her highness has always been….headstrong. But I'm sure that you and her will come to a compromise soon enough." Guilford suggested as he hoped they would see eye to eye soon.

"Let us hope so." Euphemia said as they paused again to view another painting. This one was a portrait of her father and the reigning ruler of the empire. Though if she didn't know any better, she would have said the artist captured him just right-down to the uncaring eyes and air of apathy and wrath he seemed to always emits.

* * *

(Same time – Black Knight Northern Honshu Command)

"Welcome Rakshata Chawla. Forgive the delay but it took some time for the message to reach me during a meeting." Zero greeted as he and his commander walked into the meeting room. This was the room designed for entertaining guests as was well decorated and furbished, unlike the main one. Three out of the four walls were also made from multiple sections 350mm bulletproof glass all held in place by extremely tough steel framing. The clear view windows did give them a view of central plaza of the complex.

It was quite a view since the underground facility was designed to have plants, vines on some walls and areas for flowers and grass. The view itself was to both impress and intimidate potential partners as one could also see the dozen or so knightmares parked down centre along with the many armed guards.

"Are you Zero?" The tall and rather beautiful dark-skinned Indian women asked. She was accompanied by two others who seemed to be lab assistants or aides.

"Indeed I am. We were not expecting you so soon." Zero replied as he held out his hand to give her a greeting to which she responded in kind and showed that also had a grip on her.

"And is the 'we' the group you brought with?" Rakshata asked as he pointed towards the others with a smoking pipe.

"Yes. They are my personal troops or top commanders." Zero answered as he gestured to the table so that may all sit down and get down to business.

"I see, well I say this Zero. You run quite the operation here." Rakshata stated as she sat down along with her aides. If Zero was a lesser man, he might have taken offense to her not being impressed with that they had here but he had long since stopped caring about such things and had gain a talent for politics and negotiation.

"You didn't answer the question." Tierra noted.

"Because I chose not to." Rakshata replied but the glare she received from the purple haired man was a sign that she wasn't amused. "Oh fine, I wanted to see my Guren in action. It's not every day that my best creation yet gets such rigorous exercise."

"…Well I can tell you that your creation's pilot knows how to handle her machine." Zero said as he gestured towards Kallen who had taken the seat to his left.

"Oh, so you're my child's pilot?" Rakshata asked her, making the women feel uncomfortable from both her gaze and the fact she referred to her creations as children.

"Yes." Kallen answered simply as to try and end this. Rakshata kept her gaze on her for another few tense moments before she blinked and looked away.

"…Alright then, so long as she knows what she's doing, I don't really care as to who is the pilot. On the other matter," Rakshata stated as she turned her attention to the masked leader. "Is it true? That you have your own knightmares?"

"Yes it is, the Black Knights produce most of their own heavy equipment, including knightmares." Liu Mei answered for their leader.

"Well that would explain why the order Kyoto put in for four Gekka's was withdrawn." One of the aides noted.

"So tell me, what are the specs of these knightmare of yours?" Rakshata asked him, eager for information.

"Before I do that, there is something I wanted to ask you." Zero replied with an condition, something that wasn't out of the blue as these kinds of things happened all the time during talks.

"Go on." She said as she took a drag from her pipe and breathed out the dark could.

"Why did you come here? If you were so interested in our GINNs, you could have ask for one to be shipped to India. Instead, you're here." Zero asked as he laid down a fact that he found odd. "Why is that?"

"Call it curiosity." Rakshata answered him with a short reply.

"That's not an acceptable answer." Tierra counted, looking less pleased then he did a moment ago, though the man rarely ever did look pleased, just content.

"Calm down Tierra, there's not need to get upset." Lockon stepped in before Tierra really lost his temper before he turned to face their guest. "But I do share his sentiments, that wasn't really an answer so I'll be blunt." He stated as his gaze turned serious as well, losing his usual playful gleam. "We you sent here by the Federation, Indian administration or some other source?"

.

.

.

"An answer, if you will." Leila informed her as all three foreign scientist had yet to respond but it did look like they were having a silent conversation through their eyes.

"I don't think you'll like the reasons." The other one, the skinny one spoke out this time.

"As in…more than one." Suzaku noted as he leaned forward in his chair.

"Yes."

"Surprise me." Zero stated, he wished to hear their story and see if they were worth his time. He also covertly used his powers to read them for even the smallest of little white lies.

"The first one was as I just said. I was curious as to how you were manufacturing such high spec knightmares and was hoping that with you aid, I could upgrade my Guren to new heights or even construct even better children in the future." Rakshata begun to explain. Her answer made sense as their tech was much more advanced than anything else currently in service.

"Reasonable…" Zero started as he turned over her words in his mind. "And the second?"

"I was sent here but not by my puppet government or the Eunuchs. I was…to put it bluntly, recruited." She revealed the second reason for her unexpected trip to the region. This part really caught his attention as there weren't many players he could see the blonde scientist willingly working for so it must have been important.

"Recruited? By whom?" Leila asked. There was no way she was working with the imperials otherwise she wouldn't be here. Maybe the EU? They certainly could afford someone of her talents.

"By a fraction within the Federation government that wants your aid." She revealed as she actually put the pipe down, showing that this was serious as she almost never put that thing down.

"…Interesting…You have my attention." Zero said as he too leaned forward. He was unaware that the federation had an opposing factions strong enough to recruit her without anyone being the wiser.

"How familiar are you with the inner workings of the Chinese Federation as a whole." She asked him, wanting to gauge his knowledge of international affairs.

"I know that the country is the sole 'communist' state to ever exist, I know that it's a load of crap and that the federation is merely a Chinese controlled Asian empire, I know that the so called communist country has the highest levels of Deaths, Fertility, Infant Mortality and Illiteracy and the highest levels of poverty and crime. I know that the nation's wealth and land is strictly controlled by the corrupt and very greedy Eunuchs." Clearly she didn't think he say as so much as it took a while for her to gather herself after that little short promo on why the federation is considered the old man of the three superpowers, despite being the youngest of the three.

"Then you must know that not everyone in the federation government wishes for this to continue. The current Empress is actually quite the humanitarian." Rakshata informed them, though she had never even been to the Vermillion Forbidden City or met the empress, hell she had never been to China. What she was telling them was what she was told when they approached her.

"The puppet empress. The girl's fifteen and she's been on in power since the Eunuchs killed her parents over a decade ago." Zero brushed off as it was quite well known in international circles who was really running the show in that country. The empress was never seen outside the palace and rarely gave vocal appearances for announcements.

"You have proof of this?" Rakshata asked him, surprised that he would say such a thing. Sure their deaths were suspicious there was never a connections, even circumstantial.

"Yes, but it's quite obvious. Prior to the deaths of the former Emperor and Empress, the Eunuchs never had as much power as they do now. It's also known that the emperor was a man of honour and wanted to rule for his people, not over them. Then out of the blue one day, both he and his wife are gunned down in the street and the Eunuchs suddenly have no contender." Zero explained to her what most of the political savvy members of the world already knew.

"And the proof?" Rakshata asked again, what he said was a scenario, nothing more.

"I don't have it on me if that's what you're thinking but we managed to get access to the banking records for one of the Eunuchs. We know that he paid for the legal defence for the 'assassin' and afterwards, paid him enough money to move to Finland." Zero revealed to the group as the only ones on Earth that knew that information were Suzaku and Nunnally as they dug up that little info nugget when he was investigating the Chinese to see if they would prove to be good allies.

"I also have proof that all the other top Eunuchs sent him the money for the hit and were involved in a lot of corruption prior to this that they went through a lot of trouble and dropped a lot of bodies to cover it up. My best guess is that they were afraid the emperor was catching onto them and decided to kill him first." He finished, laying all he knew onto the table.

"So those greedy fools have always been slime-balls." Liu Mei said with a smile, though to her team and leader they could see that she was seething on the inside at the knowledge that those greedy bastards intentionally ruin her homeland just to better then own lives and line their pockets with more and more money. Money that should have been used to better the lives of the people.

"I'll say that's giving slime a bad name but yes, that's the jist of it." Zero joked as he confirmed the girl's thoughts.

"Then it was a wise move to contact you. The group that approach me, they claim to be people loyal to the empress, not the Eunuchs. They wish to install her into power, _actual power_ and to eliminate the Eunuchs from power." Rakshata explained to them, fully confident that they would be of use for her new employers, which meant India as a whole will see much needed reforms sooner rather then later.

"So they want our aid?" Kallen asked since that was what this boiled down to.

"Yes, in exchange they are prepared to help with funds and other means. They also agreed what if they succeed, they'll ensure that if you do as well that the two nations will be on good terms which opens the way for trading and defence agreements." She answered as she was already briefed on how to negotiate with the Black Knights, things in the federation were not moving as her employers would have liked and needed reliable allies as soon as they could get them. They were even willing to allow her to put Hong Kong for trade if need be as the city has always been an international hub for business.

"Hmmmm…that's a lot of a faith for them to put in me, seeing how they know nothing about me." Zero remarked as such level of trust….was too good to be real, something must be going on that he wasn't aware about.

"They actually do, the Empress may not be the leader as that would draw the attention of the Eunuchs but she is an active member of the group." Rakshata clarified for them.

"How?" Suzaku asked.

"The empress is close friends with Kaguya Sumeragi and-" The scientist started but they already heard all they needed to see where this was going.

"And once she found out about who we are, she knew we were trustworthy enough to be of aid to close friend." Suzaku finished for her as he could see his cousin doing something like that. 'And if we do offer our aid and succeed, this would naturally put the new government in our debt, I forget how smart my cousin has become sometimes.' He thought to himself as he had to actively remember that she had years to turn herself into a politically adapt individual to have made it was far as she has.

"Yes, that's the conclusion I came to as well." Zero added as this seemed like a godsend. And though he was a sceptical person by nature, he was also smart enough not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"So, do we have an agreement?" Rakshata asked as he seemed that the conditions were quite favourable to them.

.

.

.

"I believe we do. Alleujah, why don't you escort our friends to our personal hangar so that they can get to work?" Zero answered as he took her hand and gave it a firm shake to seal the deal.

"And you sir?" Kallen asked Alleujah escorted their new partners out of the room.

"I got to make a call to Kyoto about this. I would have thought that would have informed us beforehand." Zero answered as he would have thought they would have sent him a message beforehand to alert him to this deal.

"Sir! We just received a letter from Kyoto." An aide said as they knocked on the door for the meeting room.

"Looks like the message was just late." Lockon laughed as that just to be convenient timing.

* * *

(Later in the Tokyo Settlement – Tokyo Royal Art Museum)

"Sub-Viceroy, is it true that no eleven companies were used in the construction of the museum?" One of the journalist present asked as he stood up from his seat.

"That is a matter we are currently looking into. As such, I cannot give you an answer at this time." Euphemia answered, though she didn't think that such a thing should have mattered-she knew this wasn't the time for place to air such views.

"Louis from Interstate. Your highness, there have been rumours going on lately that your close to choosing your knight. Is this true?" Another asked as they stood up.

"A knight." Euphemia repeated, surprised that information had already leaked to the press. She only had one or two conversations with her sister about in the past couple of months.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we ask that you please limit your questions to those related to the museum only." The art curator answered for her. But even though the mad said this, many took this as a chance to ask her questions about her personal life and affairs since she rarely went out without her sister's protection detail, just having Guilford with her after the hotel jacking was the result of her begging her sister to not have an entire platoon guard her.

'This is going to be a long day.' She thought to herself as he really wanted to rub her head since she could feel the headache coming on.

* * *

 **4** **th** **October 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Black Knight Kanto Command**

" **How's the upgrades holding up, Q-1?** " One of the mechanics assigned to zero unit, a man by the name of Taisei Yoshida asked as Kallen ran through some tests in an underground bunker.

" **Pretty good, the machine feels much more fluid now. Like an extension of my body**." Kallen replied as she flexed the Guren's right hand and though it was still a bit bulky, it moved much smoother then it regularly did.

" **For any warrior, that feeling with their weapon is a must**." Suzaku stated from the observation box above the room.

"Indeed. The parts you supplied proved to be as high quality as I suspected." Rakshata complimented as she and her aides run through all the data the unit was creating for them.

"Thank you but I'm waiting for when you can grant the Guren wings." Suzaku answered as the Guren was the only one of the Zero squad that they couldn't easily modify for flight.

"That…will take time." Rakshata informed him. "The tech and fuel your machines uses is different from conventional models, including my own. It'll take time for me to properly analyse them to match them up perfectly with my child."

"Zero-sama!" An officer worker said as they run into the room and saw the presentation. They at least had enough shame to blush and looked down at their own feet.

"What is it?" Zero said from his seat on the other side of the room. He was looking through some memos the financial department wanted him to review so he left the knightmare testing to others for the time being.

"Sir, the raid on the covey moving through Oshu." The non-combatant started as he pulled out the report that had just came in.

"Yes, did they fail?" Zero asked without looking up from his laptop as he kept on working.

"N-no sir, they completed the mission and destroyed 11 supply trucks and stole 2 but one of the soldiers sir, she turned on us." The worker said as he read over the report again to be sure. The news of such an action caught Zero and everyone else who could hear it, attention. This was the second traitor in less than a week?

"What!" Zero said as he looked up from his laptop, he was not in a good mood and this news wasn't going to help with that.

"Sir, she killed her entire tank crew and fired on our men. Casualty counts are still coming in but we so far know that 11 of our people were killed and around 19 more injured." The non-combatant relayed to them as he read the figures that the report in his hand had. Zero wordlessly reached out his hand and the man got the message and quickly placed the report into his leader hand so that he could see it for himself.

"And the traitor?" Zero asked as he read through the report before passing it along to Suzaku so that he could review it as well.

"They managed to capture her before she could kill herself sir, she's been transferred to III for now." The man replied as he handed him the second report that the III sent in to confirm the transfer of the prisoner to their custody.

"Good. Keep her there and isolated from human contact. I'll be one my way immediately." Zero said as he got up from his seat and powered down his laptop.

"Sir?"

"I'm going to the III," Zero said as he made his way for the door. "I don't know what's happening but I'm going to find out…one way or another."

* * *

 **And that is that, the last chapter for this story for 2019. I admit, I planned for more to happen in this chapter since in the summery I wrote prior with the chapter points-there was much more planned, but once I start to actually write down the parts, I realized that was really reaching my work cap for this chapter. One thing I wanted to happen in this chapter was another demonstration of the force but alas, that'll have to wait till chapter. It is because of this unexpected turn of events that I must apologise to IS6A6E as it doesn't look like there will be the lightsaber action I promised in the next chapter but the one after that.**

 **I tried to keep the chapter somewhat close to the cannon line of events but of course I purposely changed some things. One thing is that the country is experiencing early snow fall as I know snow doesn't typically fall in Japan in early October but this is decision I made that will play into the narrative, plus snowy backgrounds always look more dramatic than most. Make things look more bleak but also peaceful in a way.**

 **I also tried to show that this take on Euphemia is not the same girl from cannon as she isn't afraid to speak her mind but is aware enough to know when to hold her tongue since in my opinion, her two biggest flaws was that she wasn't brave or confident to be more open with her views on matters and often just didn't answer or went along with the flow-even if she didn't like where this flow was going. The other flaw was that she was prone to be impulsive and too emotional, she never really stopped to really think about a lot of her actions and their consequences, especially (something she herself admits in episode 20 of R1 as she knows that her impulsive nature can come off as selfish even if she doesn't mean it to and is only trying to make things better.) in my story, she's still passionate and caring to the fault but she is also patient and smart enough to take a break to look at the situation, think about what she wants and how to go about it.**

 **One last thing, for those who didn't pick up on it, Euphemia's official wardrobe is fashionable business like attire she wears from time to time whenever she's out and about or when she is busy with her duties as sub-viceroy.**


	24. Power of Kings vs The Force

**I hope you all enjoyed your New Year's celebrations and are ready for the new decade because I sure am. It took me much, much longer than I thought to get used to university life but here I am. So I'm hoping that chapter updates will be much more frequent then there were last year. Here's to that I can finish this whole thing with the spy and wrap it in a nice little bow in this chapter. As for the endgame of this story, I find myself seeing that that is a long time away, at the very least 6 chapters away, so at least I know this story will have more chapters then R1 has episodes.**

 **Thristan – If the organisation was smaller than maybe he would have seen the traitor personally but as it stands right now, he's a busy man and they have an entire division whose job it is to ascertain information and interrogate spies, besides this was the first case of such so although it was surprising, it wasn't that big of a deal.**

 **Dragonheart of Ireland – How would C.C eve know that, unlike cannon Lelouch hasn't involved her in the day to day running of the Black Knights, even if she's a turncoat(which would be the wrong term as she never swore to his cause or person), she can't really give up such info if she doesn't have it.**

 **IS6A6E – I'm trying here, I really am and I've already thought up a situation where lightsabers will be used on a stage worthy of them but I've placed in some appetizers in this and maybe the next chapter for now.**

 **Vein Bloodborne – That's up in the air as she is an interesting character but beyond that, I'll have to add in my own stuff to fill in the blanks. As for the other one, I don't hate Nina but she didn't really do herself favours in both R1 and 2, she has more baggage then Suzaku does and twice as unlikeable. As for revealing what he knows to C.C, Lelouch at the end of the day, is a pragmatic, cynical individual with trust issues so that's very unlikely.**

* * *

 **Chapter 24: Power of Kings vs The Force**

 **4** **th** **October 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Unknown location in central Japan**

"Status." Zero ordered as he along with Suzaku and Nunnally walked down one of the many halls of the III detention facility. Along with them was one of the members of the staff.

"Sir, we interrogated the first one thoroughly but have not yielded any results." The office worker reported as he read through the reports in his hands. "The second on has only been with us for about three hours and although it's premature, she doesn't look like she'll break either."

"How is it that you haven't gotten _any_ results?" Zero asked the man, scaring the hell outta him as he could tell that their leader wasn't too pleased by the lack of any good news.

"Sir, we're trying our best but so long as we stick to international law, there's only so much we can force out of them." The man answered, hoping that he wasn't punished as even though Zero was fair, no-one had really seen how it was like when he was angry and he didn't want to be the first.

"That isn't good enough." Zero countered, sounding close to a physical action if not for Suzaku laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Zero," S.K. told him to try and calm him down. "Calm yourself. We must not let our frustration and anger blind us."

"…As you say, carry on." Zero replied after taking a few moments to breathe before he turned to the worker again.

"Sir, we have already went through both their personal files and interviewed their fellow training cadets and instructors. None of them showed any signs of treachery." The man replied as he handed the reports to Zero so he could see them for himself and from a glance, he was right. Both showed no signs of this kind of behaviour.

"So they're either really good infiltrators or there's something else going on here." S.K. theorised as they came to an intersection.

"All I need is five minutes with either of them, I'll get the information." Zero said as the man quickly took his chance to leave as they turned to walk the opposite direction.

"Zero, please." Someone said as they walked up to them. "Resorting to such methods is not something we believe in." Nunnally finished as she joined the two.

"If it gets the job done, why bother the details." Zero asked them both.

"Because we're better than that, because we're striving to set an example." Nunnally reminded him, these were the moments where she knew she was needed since her brother could be too pragmatic and logical in his way of doing things, which would mean he could care less about morals and ethics at times, she would wonder if it was because of his deeper connection to the dark side or was it a result of their upbringing or some amalgamation of the two.

"Then how would you go about it?" Zero asked her as they stopped and he turned to face her.

"I have…a theory." Nunnally said slowly as she looked away from his gaze.

"Care to explain?" S.K asked to try and lower the tension between the siblings.

"Rather than forcing them to give up the information, why don't I gently probe their minds and see if I can't find anything of use?" She proposed to them both.

"Like what, surfing their minds. Mindreading?" S.K asked as he could heard of such a technique but admittedly only in the anime and manga he had seen growing up.

"Not…in that sense but rather…" Nunnally replied as she struggled to find the right words to explain her point. "Rather I'll enter his mind and observe the events leading up to their regrettable actions and see if I can't find something off."

"Is that even possible?" Zero asked as he had never heard of such an attempt from neither their masters nor the numerous other sources of force powers they had studied over the years.

"Maybe, but's it's worth a try," Nunnally responded before she locked 'eyes' with her brother. "Certainly more humane then just ripping info out of their heads."

"Fine, we'll try this your way but if it fails." Zero relented as he could see where this was going but still posed his own method just in case.

"It won't" Nunnally firmly countered before she looked over to Suzaku. "S.K., could you have then both prep? This is theory I've only discussed with the masters in passing. It'll take some time to prepare my own mind for this."

"I'll get right on that and oh," Suzaku said before he turned to walk back down the path they came down but not before saying one last thing. "Try to keep that anger of yours in check old friend, you nearly made that poor man wet himself."

"Hmph…" Zero sounded as he and Nunnally kept on walking to their destination.

* * *

(Later)

Hajime Yuko was having a bad day.

.

Scratch that, Yuko was having a terrible week.

.

.

Things are started out simple enough, he and his new unit were deployed north to attack a colonial convoy. The goal? Most likely to starve the northern garrisons of supplies.

He was so damn happy to be a part of it, to know that his efforts were not only helping to free his country but knowing that the salary-a frickin salary for God's sake-was being used to ensure his family back in his home ghetto to afford heating and food.

Joining the Black knights had been a challenge and he wanted to quit more times than he would admit in basic alone but when he finished it and was assigned to an honest to God Knightmare team? He was so damn proud.

.

.

.

It was also why he felt nothing but pure devastation right now. He didn't remember much but he remember turning on his comrades, his friends. He tried to stop, he tried! But…he just couldn't, it was like he was a spectator to an awful nightmare.

Only….he never woke up, because it wasn't a nightmare.

He killed his comrades, his friends. He nearly ruined the mission, betrayed the ideals he swore to.

And after what felt like weeks of interrogation, he just felt tired. He knew that since he couldn't give them anything that his death was assured.

There was a side of him that wanted to have that last phone-call, if only to tell his family he loved them and he was sorry but another part of him didn't want to face their judgement if they had received word of his actions, he wasn't too sure he would be able to keep it together if he had to. He was in the midst of wondering if he was going to be hung, shot by firing squad or beheaded when he heard the many locks on his door be opened before the large 4 inch steel door swung open and two guards walked in, one carrying shackles.

"Get up." The one with the shackled told him as the second stood by the door with his shotgun posed.

"Is it time?" He weakly asked.

"I said get up." The man didn't answer his question but forced him to his feet.

"Hands." Seeing no point in asking again, Yuko did as he was asked and rose both his wrist to be cuffed. Once that was done, they did the same for his ankles to ensure he couldn't do much. "Good to go." The guard told the other who nodded before sticking his head outside the door and presumably relied the message to other guards outside.

"Try anything and we'll shot you where you stand." The one with the shotgun told him as he was lead outside his cell, the door was shut behind them and now out for the first time in forever, he could see that the set-up of the place was akin to that of a high security prison, he knew from trying to plead and scream for help that each cell was soundproof but monitored by the four cameras that were installed near the four corners of the ceiling. As he was escorted by four armed guards, he could observe even more patrolling on both his level and the upper two. Another feature were the numerous gates they had to walk through that separated every 8 cell doors into mini-sections, most likely to contain any violent detainees.

He lost track of the time as he looked around at what might be his last views but was knocked back to earth when they came to a another room. This was seemed to be more welcoming then his cell but that wasn't saying much. It had a simply set-up of a bed, sink and a large table in the middle where a cloak wearing individual stood.

"We're brought him mam." One of the guards reported as they escorted him in and while two of the guard stayed outside, another two stayed by his side as the door was locked behind them.

"Thank you, you may go now." The cloaked individual said, revealing that they were female going by the soft voice.

"Are you sure mam? It may be unwise to leave you alone with the traitor." The guards asked as one of them eyed him like he was about to attack for something.

"Your worries are noted but have no fear, I'm more than capable of defending myself." The person replied, waving off their concerns.

"As you wish mam, shall we leave him in his restraints?" One of them asked. Now even he was confused, why would they do that?

"No, they won't be necessary." She replied and after a little more coxing, he found himself without his cuffs.

"Mam." And with that, both guard stepped out and closed the door behind them, leaving the two in silence as one didn't know what to say while the other seemed to be observing him.

.

.

.

"Why don't we take our seats, yes?" The women said as she walked over to her seat and sat down, before gesturing for him to do the same.

"Are you my priest?" He asked as he took his own seat, sounding weak. He was certainly not expecting the soft laughter from the women after he asked his question.

"My apologies, but no. I'm quite the religious but not in the way you would assume." She cryptically explained before she changed the topic. "No, I'm here to help you."

"Help me? How?" Yuko asked this strange women, was she supposed to be his lawyer or something?

"That would be proving that you didn't want to do what you did, nor were in control of your actions." She answered him.

"So what, you want me to plea insanity or something." Yuko said, feeling like this was going no-where fast.

"No, we're not a court where such measures would save you, what I want to do to…review if you will, your memories of that day and see if I can't find anything." She explained to him, confusing him even more as he didn't take her for the therapy type with the get-up.

"B-but how? I don't remember much from that day, how could that help me?" he asked her, a small part of him wishing to be innocent but having seen the evidence against him, he doubted he would ever walk a free man.

"That is a secret, I'm afraid." She said before she pulled down her hood and revealed her face to him but before he could act, she waved her hand in his face and spoke once more. " _You will do as I say_."

"I…I will do as you say." Yuko weakly replied as his mind was caught up the Jedi mind trick.

" _I will put you into a deep sleep. Your mind will be open to me. You will have no secret that I cannot see_." The now revealed to be Nunnally, instructed him as she kept on using her powers to place the man into a state of mind where he could answer honestly to the best of his ability as well as awaken any latent memories.

"I will be put into a deep sleep. My mind will be open to you. I will have no secret that you cannot see." Yuko replied as his eyes grew droopy before she fell asleep where he sat. Afterwards, she moved him to the bed where she laid him down and placed a seat next to the bed itself. She continued on with her session to both unlock his mind to her as well as ensure it was as painless as possible. This in of itself took another 10 minutes.

.

.

.

* * *

" _What is your name, age and place of birth?_ " She asked him once she felt it was safe to start.

"My name is Hajime Yuko, I'm 22 years old and I was born in Choshi." Yuko replied, still asleep yet awake in some sense. A contradiction that would have otherwise scared and confused all those who didn't know of the supernatural such as the force.

" _Do you have any living family?_ " She asked him, trying to set a baseline in the same manner a policing organisation would do to ensure that the results of a lie detector were as trustworthy as possible.

"Yes, I have twin younger brothers and an aunt that cares for them." He emotionlessly responded.

" _And what about the rest of your family?_ " She asked, reaching into her cloak and pulling out a data-pad with his info.

"Dead. My parents died in the war 10 years ago and my elder sister was killed by one of her clients two years." He replied, his answer matched up with both his application form and the info the III dug up when they looked into him.

" _Is your sister's death linked to your reasoning for joining the Black Knights?_ " She asked him, according to the info they had, the elder Yuko had turned to selling cocaine and cigarettes to make ends meet.

"Yes."

" _How?_ " She asked him as she looked over the folders on the screen.

"Up until then, I was too afraid to fight. She always put us first and turned to drug dealing to keep food on the table. When she died, I joined the first local resistance group I could so I could try and make a difference." Yuko explained, baring his reasoning to her, something that was left out of his application form for what she assumed were personal reasons.

" _You couldn't stand the idea of losing your remaining siblings?_ " She said to him, waiting for a confirmation.

"Yes, both are only 12 years old and don't even remember our parents, all they've known is hardship. I want them to know the peace that I did growing up." He confirmed for her. His goal was a noble one and certainly far better than some of the others ones she had heard but she had to press on.

" _Do you enjoy your position in the Black Knights?_ " She asked the man, one of the reasons he could be a traitor was maybe he felt he wasn't getting the recognition he felt he deserved.

"Very much so. With the order, I'm been able to make a great difference for my people and the money I earn doing so means that my brothers can eat three meals a day and keep warm." He shot down that theory as he sounded as content as an emotionless person could be with that answer.

" _Did something happen, recently that would shake your faith in the order? Were there any arguments, quarrels, fights you had recently with your squad-mates, CO?_ " She pressed, they needed to throw out any other justifiable cause for this if they wanted the truth and even small disagreements could lead to violent outcomes as they had in the past. Even if, those circumstances were vastly different than the one they found themselves in.

"No, nothing at all, in fact there was a rumour going around my unit that I was up for promotion to corporal." One more motive removed from the table.

" _So to establish, you have no motive, nothing to gain from betraying the order, leaking info, harming allies and killing comrades?_ " She asked him to clarify things for the record.

"Yes."

" _And everything to lose, especially since your ghetto is one of the many the Black knights don't have a presence in, meaning your siblings are not under our aegis?_ " She included as his home ghetto was one of those who they literally couldn't afford to offer aid to.

"Yes."

* * *

(Behind the tilted glass)

"Interesting." S.K noted as his stroke his chin in thought. He alongside Zero, Warwick and Tierra were watching the session through the one-way glass which was cleverly disguised as just another wall. Warwick and Tierra took to the whole force thing better than the others as Alleujah was still having trouble with it.

"He had nothing to gain in doing this, no logical or emotional reason to do so, especially since he has no history of mental issues or conditions." Warwick said as he looked through the monitor in front of him which

"Told you her method would work." S.K said to zero, sounding smug as they both knew he wasn't too hot about this plan of action.

"All that this proves," Tierra intervened. "Is that he had no motive, or reason. We still don't know why."

"Then let's hope she finds it then." Zero spoke as he had kept his eyes in the scene in front of them.

* * *

(With Nunnally)

" _But did you do it, did you kill your comrades and disobey direct orders to stand down?_ " She asked him, placing the data-pad away as it served no more purpose.

"Yes."

" _Was this a conscious decision?_ " She asked him, seeking to find anything of use as so far, they had nothing to say why he did it but they did have evidence and a confession that he did do it.

"No."

" _Explain_." She asked him, now they were getting somewhere.

"There was a…fog…in my mind. One minute I was in control…the next I see something on my monitor." The man tried to explain but clearly the repressed memories were not as clear as they should be, whatever did this to him was powerful.

" _What did you see?_ "

" _What did you see private?_ " She asked him again, this time more firm.

"A….a….chil-no….a teen." The man tried to put into words as he struggled access all that he saw and did that day.

" _A teenager?_ "

"Y-yes…I saw a…boy I believe, he had blue eyes? Maybe, and dark greyish hair. I wondered what he was doing out there and tried to call in it but…" For whatever reason, the man paused, as if trying to make sense of what he was remembering.

" _But what private?_ " She continued. This was good, very good. They could investigate much more thoroughly if they could just get more info to work with.

"His eye, it changed…yes it definitely changed. There was something red in his eye, I couldn't tell but it felt like he was looking me in the eye through the camera." The man voice become clearer, focused. The memories were coming easier to him now.

" _And what then? What did this boy do?_ " She asked him, she turned her eye to the wall-window and knew that her brother was also taking notes on this, to look over later and really dig into this revealing info.

"He gestured to me…I was confused….why did he do that but….my body started to act on its own….I could do nothing, say nothing as I watched as I turned on my own men." He man said, sounding somewhat heart-broken, something she both understood and was confused about as it must have been a very strong emotion for him to be able to express in in this such of mind.

" _So you weren't in control of your actions then?_ " She asked him again, to be clear.

"No."

" _I see. Fall back to sleep_." She told him as she saw his body relax as he was placed back into the force induced coma. She hoped he was having good dreams so he could escape the reality of the situation, at least for now but was also thinking about what she had uncovered. 'I need to probe his mind myself, if what he says is true…'

* * *

(Later)

"So everything he was saying." Zero started as he and the rest of the high command, bar Kallen who was still working on the Guren along with Rakshata sat in one of the more accommodating rooms of the III, discussing that they had just learned.

"Was true. I double checked Zero. His actions weren't his own." Nunnally replied as it had been hours since she finished her second dive in to the second supposed traitor to ensure everything was accurate. They would have had this meeting sooner but Nunnally needed rest after such an exhausting use of the force.

"So what was the cause?" Leila asked, eager to get to the bottom of this.

"It appears to be a foreign thought, a suggestion that was implanted in his mind. As to who implanted it," Nunnally revealed but just as everyone leaned forward in their seats, she had to let them down. "I cannot say, the how would you, aura of the caster was too faded on him."

"But on the other?" Lockon asked as they were two prisoners she had spoken with.

"It was more feasible. What I found was very troubling." Nunnally replied, the frown on her face not matching her normal mood but showing how serious things were.

"What?" Liu Mei inquired.

"It was dark side magic…or at least, close to it." She revealed, making those who understood what the dark side was freeze.

"What!" Alleujah yelled as he stood up, knocking his chair to the floor.

"How is that possible?! There shouldn't be any other force users in world." Suzaku was quick to follow, thought unlike Alleujah, he knew first-hand how dangerous magic could be in the right hands.

"…No….no, it's a possibility S.K. we are of this world, are we not? But what I find upsetting is the fact that there is a force user on world with the training necessary to pull this off." Zero said as he thought about this and came to the conclusion that he did.

"Yes, the realm of mental manipulation, even in the early stages isn't something you must do. It takes practice and guidance." Nunnally added in to give context to this and allow the lesser informed of the group to understand just how rare this was.

"So we know that our enemy has a connection to the force." Warwick spoke up before he turned to look over to their masked leader. "What's the play?"

.

.

.

"Until we can either eliminate or capture this force user, I hereby give the order to suspend all Black Knight related activity outside of the medical corps and management." Zero ordered, surprising the leadership as such a move was rather bold and if they were asked, uncalled for.

"Suspend?" Tierra repeated.

"Don't you think you're going a bit too far?" Leila asked him.

"That'll put us back days, even weeks." Suzaku said, hoping that his friend would change his mind on this.

"It's crucial that we find and fix this issue as soon as possible. Since we don't know much aside from a basic description we can't risk any more operations till we deal with this." Zero replied, his stance unchanging as he stood his ground on this. "I must speak with the masters about this, I have a feeling things are only going to get harder." He finished as he got up from his chair and left the room, soon after the meeting ended as they all went to continue their own duties.

* * *

 **9** **th** **October 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

 **Lamperouge Residence:**

"Arg! This waiting game is killing me!" Suzaku yelled as he fell onto the sofa. It had been just over a week since the meeting in the III and true to his order, all BK activity was called off. If it could be put on hold, it was.

"I know but we must have patience, Suzaku." Nunnally said as she went about folding what must have been the 100th paper crane of the week. She had recently started doing the activity again as she hadn't done so in years.

"It's been a week already, and Lelouch hasn't been able to find a thing!" Suzaku shot back, their friend wasn't even home as he had taken a shuttle to Mars to speak with the masters in person the previous night. "For all we know, that problem already left."

"Or is just in hiding, waiting for our next move." The younger calmly countered as she placed the finished crane into the table alongside another 9 of them. "We can't afford to act recklessly, all we'll be doing is throwing away equipment and most importantly, lives."

"But if all we do is sit on our hands, what good does that do!"

"We're not and you know it! Not everything can be solved quickly!" Nunnally shot back, losing her own temper before she calmed herself down. "We know next to nothing about this agent, this…force user. For all we know they may have been sent by the Jedi or Sith."

"You don't think…" Suzaku started, the thought brought dread to his heart.

"Earth would be a prime target, all the world's nations combine would be overrun within days. And we both know that the Sith would more than happily glass a third the planet if the other two thirds fell in line." She reminded him as the Sith had enslaved over dozens worlds at this point and were in the middle of expanding that reach. "And as of late, the republic has grown more desperate. If they thought earth could be of use…they'll also send in troops." She finished as the other side in this war wasn't all that much better, at least, not to them.

"And you think the Jedi would just stand back and do nothing?" Suzaku asked, his own bias leaking out.

"That is the sad reality Suzaku, this war they've been waging against each other has already cost the lives of hundreds of millions, whole planets bombed and burned to ash." She reminded him softly, the thought of so many dying and her being unable to help them wasn't one she enjoyed. "What would be one more in a region of space barely anyone knows about?"

"Still…"

"The Jedi hunt and destroy anything even related to the dark side Suzaku. They fear it. And in their fear, they choose to destroy rather than understand. They preach balance but practice the opposite, seeking to eliminate all that doesn't line up with their views." She said as she looked down at her own hands and whispers the last part, thought Suzaku still heard it. "Which includes us."

"Shit." The man said as he lost his anger and just laid there on the sofa, the reality of it all really weighting on his soul.

"We can't just act without thinking, now when those two may be involved." She told him as she reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. The two set in silence for a few minutes but one thought came to Suzaku's mind that made him pause and then realize something.

"Involved….wait a minute, Code-R." He whispered to himself as his brow creased, they never did learn the full story there.

"What was that?" Nunnally asked him as she didn't hear him right.

"Code-R, remember Clovis was trying to find a way to immortality. And what was he using as a source?" Suzaku asked her as he got up and started to pace.

"C.C." Nunnally answered as it begun dawn on her what he was eluding to.

"She can survive things no non force related person could. If she could do it, maybe there is more to this then we know." Suzaku said as it took a second to think about and found that the entire thing did have more to it than they released to the public, partly because they didn't have the full story themselves and someone went out of their way to keep it like that. "But we'll need to ask her."

"There's no need. She's already here." Nunnally said out of the blue before she turned to the doorway. "Why don't you came out of the shadows and join us for tea, C.C.?"

.

.

.

"I'm impressed that you could tell I was here." C.C. said as she walked out of the shadows into their view. "How?"

"I'll answer your questions if you answer some of ours." Nunnally told her, not giving an answer.

"Would they be related to your little problem?" C.C. asked as she came and sat on the seat opposite them.

"Yes," Nunnally replied. "What do you know about this?"

"About what?" C.C said, playing dumb.

"Code-R what do you know about it, what were the goals, methods, reasoning?" Suzaku clarified for, keeping his anger in check.

"Don't you already know?" And once more, the green haired women played the fool.

"Don't answer the question with another question and be straight with us!" Suzaku yelled at her, not in the mood for her mental games.

"Suzaku, calm yourself." Nunnally spoke up before she turned her attention to the seemingly unfazed women. "You said that you and my brother are both things that should be impossible, yes?"

"He said that." C.C corrected as she leaned onto her side, beginning to lay on the seat.

"But you didn't disagree." Nunnally countered and even though it was a small win, she still felt proud that she was right given as the women didn't say otherwise. "What do you think of this?"

"Hmmm?" C.C sounded, not appearing to all that interested in the conversation but her very presence here showed that she in fact, was.

"You were surprised when you saw what I could do but not as much as one would if they didn't believe in the supernatural period. I wasn't the first person to do something you couldn't explain, was I?" Nunnally told her, grateful that when she recovered her sight, she spent much of her time trying to become as observant as she could be to not take for granted her newly healed sense.

'She's got a good eye, being observant runs in the family.' C.C thought to herself, impressed that this young girl would pick up on something as minor as she had spent entire decades perfecting her poker face. "I've seen many things." She eventually said aloud.

"So you do know something." Nunnally said, not asked.

"I know that you two are awfully close minded." C.C rebutted, giving them a riddle rather than an answer.

"We're the close minded ones?" Suzaku sadly, didn't get the subtle nature of the riddle but Nunnally did.

"No, I think she's right, we've been looking at this from one view. We both know that there are other…outlets." She said as she got up and went for the door. "I'll contact brother, you send out a message for a general meeting."

"Huh, okay?" Suzaku said, confused as to what she was thinking about. "What're you thinking?"

"Something that may be of use." Was all she said before he left the room and went for the communications room.

* * *

(Later – Secure communications room)

" **So** ," Master Kaden spoke. " **What was so important you had to call us?** " He asked as he along with Auburna and Lelouch spoke over a holo-projection. The rest of the high command were being shown to her via numerous flat-screen TV screens outfitted to the walls of this soundproof bunker.

" **I would like to know that as well**." Lelouch said in agreement.

"Master, I have another theory." Nunnally said, once more voicing a theory to them but with her track record, they allowed her to continue.

" **[Well then, speak child]** " Auburna spoke up, though only the ones that had either been off world or were aliens themselves understood the Wookie.

"Yes master Auburna. With the matter of the force user we've suspect we've encountered. I don't think they'll the traditional force user." Nunnally voiced her opinions to the groups.

" **[What do you mean?]" Auburna asked as she and Kaden locked eyes for a moment, seemingly having a silent conversation before she turned back to her pupil.**

"Master, we're were planning things thinking they were either Jedi or sith but like ourselves, what if they're neither?" She proposed to the, gaining the attention of her brother and their former sith teacher.

" **Oh?** " Kaden spoke as she stroked his beard.

"What if they're like the night-sisters, practitioners of the force but one aligned with one side?" Nunnally suggested, in hindsight feeling like an idiot to assume the basic when her sister-in-law was of the night-sisters herself.

" **Hmmm, that would explain some things, the night-sisters are far more adept with the force then the average lifeform but no so much as to match that of a Sith or Jedi**." Lelouch stated as he looked to be deep in thought in the issue.

"Meaning that whatever befall our soldiers was a force spell not ability." Suzaku realized. Something that was helpful to the non-informed who could compare these 'night-sisters' to conventional witches from folklore.

" **Yes but those spells used by the night sisters traditionally fall more alongside the darker aspects of the force**." Kaden added in. " **There's also the matter of where they learnt such a thing. We've monitor all traffic coming in and out of the system and only our ships ever come here**."

"Those same ships which dock first on Mars. There would be no way a store away could reach earth." Suzaku uttered, now they knew a probable cause but not much else.

" **That isn't important here**." Lelouch said as he came to his own conclusion. " **What is, is the fact we know have a solid lead. And if this mind-bending spell really is closer to the dark side, then I can track it to the source**."

" **[Are you sure? Such an activity would leave you exhausted]**." Auburna asked her student. Her concern shining through even to those who didn't understand Wookie.

" **Don't worry too much master, I'll still have enough in me to fight if need be**." Lelouch assured her with a small smile, though Suzaku figured he'll still need to be nearby to save his ass if things went south.

"So we have a plan of action?" Nunnally asked the group as a whole.

" **[Yes we do, you'll set up an attack on a Britannian convoy and Lelouch will search for the agent. Once he finds them, detain them for questioning]**." Auburna instructed her three students who in turn bowed their heads and answered as one.

"Yes, master."

* * *

 **11** **th** **October 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Southern Fukushima Prefecture region:**

" **How are things in your end?** " Kallen asked over the radio as she piloted a regular GINNs just like everyone else, they figured that an attack with them 'not present' would present too big a chance for the alleged witch(s) to pass up.

" **Everything is going as smoothly as we expected.** " Suzaku answered as she cut down another Sunderland. They were attacking a small communications station in the dead of night so it looked like they were trying to disrupt imperial chatter as to follow the same theme as their convoy attack.

" **Still, you really think they'll show?** " Alleujah asked as he blasted apart one of the vehicle bays, now they won't have a place to store those Humvees.

" **As far as we know, they're operating in northern Honshu but this isn't that far outside their comfort zone**." Liu Meu replied as she aimed down her sight for her unwise target to line up.

" **Yeah, and there's the fact we leaked info saying that a small unit of the BK would be attacking this communications station. Though we left out all the details**." Lockon added in as he pulled the trigger at the same time Liu Mei did, heavily damaging an APC while she knocked out an IFV.

" **Still, there is a number of knightmares I didn't think would be assigned to such a task, meaning that at the very least-the imperials knew we were coming**." Tierra observed as he jumped on top a tank and blasted the turret from above for a couple seconds before he jumped off just as the vehicle exploded from the damage.

" **We also didn't bring our personal units, as far as anyone is concerned. Zero and his top guns are not present**." Suzaku joked as he blocked a clumsy and rather desperate strike before he punched the Sunderland back, damaged the head.

" **How you holding up boss?** " Warwick asked their leader who for nearly the entire engagement had been silent, seating in a knightmare in the rear alongside the command station.

" **This would be much easier if I had some peace and quiet**." The masked man replied, his tone showing he wasn't amused by the chatter. " **Trying to track something using the dark side takes attention to detail**."

" **Hehe, sorry**." Liu Mei apologised before she logged off the channel, the rest of them following soon. Leaving the man with the relative calm environment he wanted.

'Alright, let's hope her theory holds up.' Lelouch thought to himself as he closed his eyes and calm his breathing and mentally prepared himself for what he was about to try.

* * *

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'So far, so good. There are no other force users nearby.' He evenly thought as he could feel the flow of the force over the battlefield. He could hear much more clearly the explosions, the barking of orders, and the cheers of success over an opponent and the pleas for back-up. He could feel the life leave those who fell as they breathed their last. Even the nearby animals. The fleeing birds and rodents having a unique prospective of things as they scurried off for their lives.

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He didn't realize it but it took well over 15 minutes before he could sense something amiss. 'Hmmm, what do we have here? These three are acting off.' He asked himself as he could 'see' three of their knightmares moving away from the battlefield. Just before they did this, he felt a small pulse in the force. It was a slight one but its darker aspects was obvious to those who trained in the dark acts. He focused his search in the area of those three machines and within a couple minutes, he found the source.

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'There!' He thought to himself as he could 'see' the source was small humanoid body. One that the knightmares were all driving towards it. 'Looks like we found our witch. But there's something off about this.' Once he locked into it, he activated his own machine and silently made his way towards it.

" **Zero, you wound something?** " Warwick asked him as he noticed him moving away from his position.

"Yeah, it's weaker than I thought but its connection to the dark side is clear." Zero replied as he drove towards the source of this dark magic. "I'm going to check it out."

" **We'll come with you**." Kallen said as she was about to break off from the fight as it was now just becoming a clean-up operation. It would take some time before imperial reinforcements could arrive.

"No, it'll be suspicious if we all go. Stay back in case something happens. I'll disembark from the knightmare in the treeline over there. It'll be easier to move in foot." He ordered as he moved towards the treeline. He figured that he could just go through the forests but that would make too much noise and be very noticeable.

" **If you say so**." Kallen replied with a tone that said she wasn't happy about his decision.

" **Don't worry, I'll watch his back from away**." Lockon added to the conversation as he moved away from the battle to try and find a suitable position to get a good view of where Zero wished to go so he could offer fire support.

"Appreciate that." He assured her as she cut the radio as he reached the outer trees. 'Alright, here's my stop.' He said to himself as he deactivated the knightmare and got out of the machine. Once he hit the ground, he was already off. Moving to one of the trees and quickly climbing it, reaching the higher branches.

'Why don't we see where you think you're going?' He said to himself with a smirk as he started to jump from branch to branch, using the night-vision embedded into his helm to see where he was going. He also made use of the force to give himself a boost so he could go further than a normal human could while using the same power to soften his landings to make it harder for the target to hear him.

"Odd, why are they being led so far away? I can hardly hear the gunfire now." He asked himself as he was able to keep up with the knightmares but he could notice that they were moving quite the distance away from the battle, something which was off as the first two incidents had nothing like this.

"Okay this is getting weird. We must have moved like, 400m by now. How could someone sway a target from such a distance?" He questioned as he opted to get a little closer as he could still the dark magic but unlike before, it was moving. In fact, once he closed the distance a little, he could see why.

'I guess there's my answer.' He thought to himself as he could see one of the knightmares was carrying a young boy in its arms who matched the description of both pilots. 'I guess they were both right, it is a teen….no they looked younger than that, maybe 11…12?' This was quite odd.

'Okay…this is definitely not the night-sisters, they would never teach a thing to a male. But that does look like magic….force magic, I gotta get closer.' He resolved as he kept on following them. They would have to stop eventually, right?

* * *

(With the two agents)

"Is this all you could grab?" One of the two boys asked. The second had just arrived in the clearing they had agreed to meet in with three of the terrorist knightmares.

"Unfortunately, anymore and I fear someone would have noticed." The first one answered as he climbed down from the knightmare's hand. All three machines acting like dolls as once they stopped, they just stood still.

"Then they'll have to do for now. We need to speed things up, the master is getting irritated to say the least." The first to speak stated as he looked over the enemy units and even though he didn't look it, he was impressed with the workmanship seen in them. Rolo was sure their master would be pleased, but all he knew was after this, he'll just be sent on another assignment. Maybe he'll be sent somewhere warmer like Africa this time around.

"We need to get these ones back then, the sooner we can question them-the better." Reginald said as he took out his phone and was in the mist of calling their transport when unexpected voice spoke up.

"I think not."

"What?" Rolo said as he reached for his SMG, his associate doing the same and pulling out his pistol as they both scanned the area for anyone.

"I was followed? How?" Reginald asked himself as he looked through the treeline trying to spot who just spoke but they were having no such luck, till they did.

"Quietly," The figure said as they walked into the clearing, having an air of both arrogance and power. "I assume you know who I am?" Zero said as he walked into between the three knightmares, his bold actions catching them both off guard.

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"What's the matter? Cat got your tongues?" He spoke up again as he looked the two over, covertly reaching for his duel weapons. "You were so eager to whisk away my men here along with their machines. If I didn't know any better…" He started as he looked Rolo's in the eye with a gaze that made a chill move down the geass agent's back.

"I'll say you're scared of me." He taunted which proved to be enough of a wake-up call to the two as they both moved to aim their weapons at him while Reginald used his control over the three pilots to make them aim their weapons at him as well.

"The only who should be scared is you." Rolo told him, not showing much emotion in his stance and tone as he turned off the safety on his weapon. "Only a fool would walk into this kind of situation. So why don't you surrender. Our master would love to see you dead."

"I'm afraid he would have to get in line. People have been wanting to see me six feet under for years now." Zero joked, as if the numerous weapons of death aimed at his person didn't even phase him.

"Your humour won't save you, what are you doing? Stalling for time?" Reginald asked as he turned his attention to the treeline to see if he couldn't spot an ambush before he happened. The man's laughter proved otherwise.

"Me? Oh no. I came alone. This whole affair was to lure you out into the open, and might I say." Zero replied as he laughter died down. "It was a smashing success wasn't it? You're standing right in front of me, so why don't you make it easier for yourselves and lay down your arms?" He mocked as he rose both arms up, billowing his cloak while also letting them see that in both hands, he was holding something but they couldn't tell what in the light.

'What? There's no way he set up an entire attack just to lure us out!' Reginald thought to himself as he could feel his ire rising at the insolence of this terrorist scum.

"Why would we do that? Last time I checked, you're the one trapped here with us and we're the ones pointing guns at you." Rolo asked him, not really curious but willing to humour him before he was beaten and captured.

"No my dear foolish foes," Zero started, his tone dropping into the realm of scary and foreboding. His hands reaching out to the two machines to his sides. "You're trapped here with me and you just gave me ammo." He finished as he used the force to rip the rifles from the two knightmare before he threw them towards the third unit, striking its' arms and throwing off its aim as it tried to fire on him and missed.

"What the hell!" Reginald yelled as he tried to fire on the masked man but as if he knew he was about the fire, he dodged the bullets before pulling the gun out his hands towards him, once it was close enough-he slashed the weapon in half with his lightsaber. In the confusion, the three knightmares tried to use their anti-personal machine guns but he merely used the force to rip all three cockpits from their units and toss them into a pile, ensuring all three pilots were knocked out cold.

'That report! This is what he can do!' Reginald thought to himself as he recalled the report they got off him from their spy listening in to the viceroy's meeting. But the report emphasized some kind of beast illusion, not this! "Rolo!"

"Got it!" Rolo replied as he activated his geass, suspending everyone's sense of time expect his own. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Zero was in fact trapped in his power as well. 'Heavens, to command such power….what kind of geass is this?' he asked himself as he walked over the man in question and took the time to inspect him. He didn't see much with the armour and helm but they were also well made and looked built for function. "Either way, it appears the master will have to see you personally to better investigate you." He said aloud as he aimed his SMG for Zero's leg so he could be captured.

"You….think…so?" Zero asked him, sounding slowed down and slurred. The fact that he was speaking was enough of a shock Rolo didn't pull the trigger, something he regretted as Zero used his mysterious power to pull the weapon out of his hands and cut it in half as well, though at a slower pace than the first time.

"Impossible!" Rolo said as he jumped back and turned off his geass, feeling the relief as his heart started functioning properly again. As he turned his power off, Reginald found that he was moving again while Zero could feel that he wasn't as slow as before.

"Oh, well that was unexpected, I never thought someone would take the phase 'slow down and smell the roses' to such an extreme." He jested as he jumped side to side and true to his own perception, he was moving just fine again. Whatever the boy did to him, it was impressive as he had only heard of force abilities that increased your own speed.

"Rolo, why is he still alive?" Reginald yelled at his long-time partner as he was used to two things happening when the older boy used his power. One, he disappeared or two, their target would be dead at their feet.

"I tried to use my geass and…he was resisting it." Rolo answered, sounding like he was just as stunned as he was which when he thought about, might just be the case.

"What, that's absurd, no-one caught in your power can even move!" He shot back at him, there must have been some kind of trick here, no-one they ever hunted ever withstood Rolo's power.

"Well, first time for everything. That was a nighty trick though. Definitely a branch of the dark side but…" Zero said as he activated both his lightsabers and started to approach them.

'Dark side?' Reginald thought confused.

"What does he mean?" Rolo asked quiet, equally puzzled by the choice of words used by the man in dark attire.

"It's so…water down. Weak, are you two really force users or just a couple of one trick ponies?" Zero asked them, mocking them and their gifts as if they were trivial when they were the blessings that gave them a leg-up on all those they had faced. Something Reginald would not stand for.

"How dare you!" He yelled as he whipped out a second pistol and took aim. "Die!"

 **Bang!**

* * *

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"Misdirected passion…" Zero started as he held onto the throat of Rolo, easily lifting the boy into the air and he strangled him. It had happened in an instant. In the second that Reginald had pulled the trigger, Zero once more used his strange power to swing his aim off, making him miss. In the same move, he dashed towards them and not only kicked Reginald hard enough in the gut that he flew back a couple metres but pulled Rolo closer into his grasp. His strong hand finding itself gripping Rolo's neck.

"…Such a waste." The masked man finished as he turned his attention to the boy he had in his grasp, strangling him with ease.

"H-how…?" Rolo gasped out as he tried to lessen the pressure on his windpipe but his hands couldn't do so and his kicks weren't doing him any favours. He could go for his trusty knife but he was smart enough to know Zero would pick that up pretty quickly.

"Don't make me kill you, I still have questions to ask." Zero warned him, having noticed the look in his eye before he noticed something else. "Hmmm, it looks like your friend fled." He noted as he turned his head and true to his word, Reginald was gone.

"He…not my…friend." Rolo was able to get out as he could feel his body get heavier and heavier as spots appeared in his vision.

"No, I wouldn't consider someone like that any companion of mine either." Zero taunted as he lessen the pressure so that the boy didn't pass out, something Rolo saw as his chance, even if he'll regret this later.

"I won't be…captured." He stated as he activated his geass once again, hoping that the lag he noticed his Zero's movements would prove enough for him to counter but alas, it was for nought as he felt the grip on his neck tighten once again.

"Not that shit again, as I said-one trick pony." Zero said as Rolo's geass broke as he found himself unable to breathe under this even harsher hold. He had so many questions, he was so confused but before anything else. Zero decided that enough for enough.

"Now, _go to sleep_." Zero instructed him as he used the force to put the agent to sleep before carelessly dropping him to the floor in a pile. He looked around and could tell that the other one must have been long gone by now as he didn't feel like putting up a chase, the fool would find his way back to in soon enough he thought to himself.

'The powers you demonstrated. They are certainly more aligned with those of the night-sisters, more manipulation of the mind than anything else but…they're different somehow.' He thought to himself as he looked down at his captured quarry before he reached for his radio. It was time he called in that back-up.

"Either way, this requires further study," He said aloud as he activated his com and awaited for someone to pick up. "And you may just be my ticket."

* * *

(With Reginald)

How? How did he resist us?!

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How did he resist both our geass abilities?!

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No-one can do that, the only one who could is the mas-!

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No…..

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That's impossible…he can't be….

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These were the thoughts racing through the mind of the boy named Reginald as he ran through the forest in the dark, he feared that using his flashlight would give away his position to his would be pursuers. Once he saw Zero focus on Rolo, he cut his losses and made a break for it. He didn't know how long he run, it could have been a couple minutes, and it could have been an hour. All he knew was he ran far enough away that by the time he stopped to catch his breath, he was covered in cuts and scratched from the bushes and branches he run into and was surrounded by the silence of night. Once he got some air into his lungs, he reached for his encrypted phone, there was a call in had to make.

"Master…" He spoke once he heard the other end be picked up.

"What is it Reginald? Is the mission complete?" V.V asked him, his tone sounding bored but for someone who had worked for the child immortal for years, he knew not to take that at face value.

"No my master, I'm so sorry but we failed. Rolo's been captured." He regretfully informed his master as a few tears leaked from his eyes, his shame showing through.

"What, do you not know how I treat those who failed me?" V.V asked/stated as both knew those who failed the master and were particularly spectacular in their failings never had a happy fate.

"Please master, I can explain! Zero…he…he was there. He isn't human master!" Reginald tried to explain to his master.

"What are you bubbling on about? Of course he's human." V.V told him, sounding both amused at his pleas and annoyed that he spewing what to him, sounded like nonsense.

"No master…he's isn't! He…he was able to resist the effects of both mine and Rolo's gifts! I don't know how but Zero…he may be…an immortal as well." Reginald finally told him what the most likely theory he had for this was. It was the only possible solution he could think of, the only other one was if Zero was just a state of the art android. At his desperate claim, he was met with silence as no doubt V.V was thinking about this, turning over his words and the small amount of evidence they had in his own mind.

"Are you sure about this?" He finally spoke up, sounding much more serious than he did a moment ago.

"There is no other conclusion….he can do things….things no mortal could ever hope to do…our gifts had no effect on him." Reginald confirmed, sounding like he was calming down but still in the brink of another panic, he looked around himself and hoped that he wasn't being watched from the shadows.

"…I see…return to the safe-house and lay low for a few days, I need time to think about this." V.V said as he cut the line but not before Reginald was able to reply to the order as he thanked his lucky stars he wasn't going to be killed for this, he had chance to redeem himself.

"Yes director V.V."

* * *

 **14** **th** **October 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Black Knight Kanto Command:**

"Were you successful?" Oscar asked as he drank some tea.

"I was, it took longer than I thought but I was able to completely purge all the spells effects from their minds." Nunnally smiled as she passed along the good news. "Once more, their minds are their own."

"And yet they still choose to leave the order." Leila said as she looked over the both members approved discharge papers.

"To be expected. Even if they now know it was not of their wish, the fact of the matter is-it was still their bodies that carried out these heinous acts, all while they could do nothing but watch." Akito replied as he could only imagine how that would feel.

"It is a sad thing indeed." Nunnally agreed with him as she envisioned such a felt and felt a chill move down her spine. "To be a prisoner in your own body."

"Yes, but that must be discussed another day unfortunately. What needs to be discussed right now is how will be proceed going forth?" Oscar brought their attention to the real reason this meeting was called.

"Yes, the thought of more of those little mind invaders running about isn't exactly something I enjoy, and now we know that wherever they come from, has a bone to pick with us." Lockon as Zero's representative spoke up.

"And just when I thought the empire was enough of an enemy to worry about." Leila muttered as she squeezed the bridge of her nose as she could already tell this wouldn't be easy by any means.

"Well, what do we know about this shadow group?" Oscar asked them all.

"S.K. and Zero are interrogating the prisoner now but he hasn't been in a cooperating mood, the III haven't been able to get a word out of him." Nunnally replied, sad that she could already predict the poor boy's fate if her brother had decided to step in.

"And that little trick of his had led to 3 different guards being injured by him in two different escape attempts." Akito added in as they had received the reports pretty quickly, within an hour of each escape attempt. Such a power was making them seriously consider upgrading their security protocols and systems.

"Meaning that if he doesn't offer anything to Zero…" Oscar started as he could see where this was going.

"He's as good as dead." Lockon finished the thought for them.

* * *

(With the prisoner)

"Alright, you leave me with no choice but to offer you this last deal." S.K. breathed out as he was getting tired with how stubborn the prisoner in front of him was being. They had already been at it for three hours and the boy had barely spoke, opting to just watch him and stick to simply single worded answers whenever he did feel like talking.

"." And just like he had come to expect, the boy kept his mouth shut. Thought that might be because he was wearing a restraining jacket as after his second attempt, the warden decided he was too dangerous not to have one.

"[sigh] Being stubborn won't help you here, trust me on that." S.K. tried to reason with him. "The deal is this: cooperate with us and you will be treated as a POW under international law and transferred to a more comfortable holding facility. Or you can keep your silence and we will extract any info from you the hard way."

"What could you do to me to break me?" Rolo asked, this being the first full sentence he had said since he awoke in his holding cell.

"The fact of the matter is, you don't exist," S.K. told him as he through his paper thin file onto the table for the boy to see himself. "Now I know you're probably know that since as a covert, off-the-books operative working for some unknown shadow organisation, having agents with to records makes sense, no proof that you ever existed makes it easier to operate. But the downside is because you don't exist, you don't classify as both a citizen to any recognised nation nor are you a registered member of any officially recognised armed force the world over." S.K started as he hoped to scare him onto compliance.

"Get on with it." Clearly he tactics needed polishing.

"It means," He said as he leaned closer to him. "That we don't have to worry about breaking any international laws or conventions as you can't classify as a POWs if you're not a citizen or member of an armed force. It means that nothing is off the table in how we can treat you and get away with it." He told him, thought personally he was disgusted with it as he and Nunnally argued against it when Tierra had brought it up but they were sadly, outvoted. "Please, I'm trying to help you, you don't know what awaits you if I walk out that door and you don't agree to this. Take the deal." He begged him, hoping that he would choose life over a meaningless death.

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Regrettably, his prays would go unanswered as all Rolo did was spit in his face, well onto his helmet but his answer was clear.

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"[Sigh] I had hoped you would listen but I see that was a foolish notion." S.K. breathed out tiredly as he got up from his seat and made his way to the door. As he reached for the knob he turned around to look at the boy who what was the last time he'll see him alive. "I hope whatever you're defending, is worth it."

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* * *

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"You don't have to do this." S.K said as he walked into the observation room where Zero had been watching the entire affair without saying a word. He knew it was pointless but he still had to try.

"You can't talk me out of it, you know that." Zero told him, firm in his stance on this.

"Nunnally can get the information, you know that. What you want is-"Suzaku tried to change his mind but he found himself cut off.

"Justice, I don't know what you saw but I saw someone who manipulated the minds of others to do his dirty work. Someone who left two of our people mentally scarred." Zero cut him off as he looked through the glass at Rolo who still looked like he would refuse to work with them. But it was too late, his fate was already sealed. "Don't act like you don't know, we had to send them to different ghettos under new names because we don't have a plausible way of explaining their actions, their victims now have to live their lives seen as murderers and traitors!" He turned to his friend to make sure he understood the weight of his crimes, about how they had to create new identities for their discharged members just so they could live their lives without being harassed about what happened to them.

"But this won't bring them back Zero."

"Don't lecture me about the dead. If anyone knows that it is me," Zero counted, holding back his fury. "I know we can't bring them back but you and I both know there's a more to life than good and bad guys, they are also the right guys for the job. War is messy and there is no moral high ground in such a barbaric act, only shades and grey and what needs to be done." He finished as he made his way for the door.

"But-!"

"Look at him!" Zero yelled as he pointed to the prisoner. "Does that look like the face of a man worth your mercy? Does he look like he regrets his actions?" He asked him, knowing that the answer wasn't something the other would admit. "Does he look like he feels anything for ruining the lives of two people and killing numerous others!?" He said as he pulled his friend towards the glass to give him a closer look. "You may see a human being S.K. but I see an enemy that is neither repentant of their actions nor willing to cooperate with us and has valuable intelligence." He finished as she let go of him and made his way for the door again.

"We tried this your way now," He said as he gripped the door knob and opened the thing. "We try it my way." He closed the door, leaving his closest friend in the silence as he watched Zero enter the questioning room where Rolo still sat. Rolo looked disinterested still he was picked up via the force and harshly thrown into the wall, he looked away as he saw Zero approaching the downed boy as black lighting started to arc off his hands to the floor.

This….would not be pretty.

'You should have taken the deal' Suzaku thought to himself as he made his way out the room, he didn't want to see where this would go.

* * *

 **As with that, the chapter is brought to a close. This one took longer than usual for me to write as being over 10K words will do that. As stated prior, there isn't much lightsaber action here as there were other means to get the jobs done. I also tried to show more of Suzaku and Nunnally's characters they are both much more caring and humane when compared to Lelouch, they act as foils to his more brutal tactics while we see that Suzaku is of the rash character he was in R1 where as Nunnally is the patient of the two.**

 **As for geass, I decided to make it similar to the force magic the Night-Sisters use so it fits into the story better. It's more akin to the dark side as we've seen some pretty scary geass abilities but there are others which fall more to the light side of the force. This will be explain as the story goes on so be patient. The geass Reginald has basically allows him to use others like puppets. It's not the strangest one we've seen as when the BK attacks the order in R2, one of the children is maybe to take control of one of the pilots by just looking at him and making him attack his comrades, the only difference being in this take of such an ability, you don't need eye contact and the victims cannot speak once ensnared in the geass.**

 **As for C.C, she helped them with that riddle of hers but she also gained more knowledge on what they are doing since she was eavesdropping so no doubt word will reach Marianne sooner or later. Oh at last, I finally gave master** **Auburna some dialog and if you didn't realize it, like with all Wookies we hear speak, she's speaking in her native tongue, the only reason they could understand it was because those who had been to space(The force unsers) learnt the language years prior while the rest were lucky enough for the transmission to be translated by an built-in translator unit.**


	25. Connecting the Dots

**Welcome back readers, we are back for another chapter of this little story of mine. Now before I get into it, I would like to announce that I've begun working on my own book so that will take some time away from my fanfictions so I can work on my own fictional story. Now as we all know, both the Star Wars universe, both Disney cannon and Expanded as well as the world of Code Geass-are complicated and vast. So this story as I've stated will not only be only part one of what hopefully will be an entire series of stories but I'll also try to make chapter longer with a minimum of around 8.5k words.**

 **I've also been watching videos made by 'Hello Future Me' and 'Shadiversity'. More specifically, their videos on world building, storytelling and historical facts and legends. Both channels are just great as they gave me some things to think about not only with my own stories but with my new work of fiction so I highly recommend heading to YouTube and watching them as well, they are very informative. Anyway, this chapter will in of itself, will focus now on both sides of this conflict in Area 11 and how the different people on both sides are taking all this bloodshed, fighting and cloak and dagger business so once more, it'll be Euphie's time to shine.**

 **IS6A6E – As promised, your appetizer has been planned out and although it's not the main course, I think it will suffice for now. As for the Sith or the republic, they will became a factor in part 2 of this series I'm working on as we all know if even one of them were to move on them now, Lelouch will lose as I refuse to allow him to beat them back just cause he's the main character. There needs to be some realistic chance of them winning or a smaller chance if her pulls a 'miracle' as we see in the Star Wars universe, single planets are capable of holding back larger armies and navies such as the Galactic Empire, it just a matter of planning, strategies and what are the objectives of each side as glassing planets which sustain life or have an abundance of a resource is not pure evil, its pure stupidity as even with the scorched earth tactics used here on Earth, such methods only make an area unusable for a certain time which in most cases, is too much time for an attacking force to wait or repair the area to a state of working order. A glassed planet can stay lifeless and useless for decades if not centuries as one good example of this is Mandalore itself. Their constant wars and fighting turned a world which was similar to Earth to mainly deserts and wastelands (in some sources, there are areas of the planet which are either toxic to like such as humans or radioactive due to nuclear weapons)**

 **Perseus12 – Funny enough, I always saw Lelouch destroying the Geass Order in the same light as Anakin destroying the Jedi Order as I can't be the only one who sees the similarities between the two of them as some things they share are:  
Both were young for man of action, never mind men with the political and military standing they had as with Anakin, he was only 19 at the start of the Clone Wars and 22 when it ended. Lelouch was 17 when he started his rebellion and 18 when he died after conquering his whole world.**

 **Both have tragic childhoods as Anakin was a slave till Qui-Gon Jinn found him on Tantooine while Lelouch was disowned by his own father and banished to a foreign land which the audio books for Code Geass, wasn't pleasant till the finals mouths prior to the war.**

 **Both lose their mothers and this lost helps to shape them as characters to the point where both were likely to either hurt you or kill you if you insulted their respective moms.**

 **Both lost the women they loved and consequently fall even further into darkness, the only difference between them here is that Lelouch didn't become a lord of chaos and evil.**

 **Both are considered to be very attractive.**

 **Both are considered to be great motivators and leaders as the 501** **st** **under Anakin would have followed him to hell and back due to his empathy and leading the charge mentality. Lelouch on the other hand inspired people through his 'miracles' and showed more than once he cared for at least some of his soldiers as he proved due the Black Knights when he full heartedly promised to save Kallen after she was captured by Xingke. Another thing that both would sometimes pull victories out of thin air where others would have only seen defeat.**

 **Both have sincere and honest relationships with those under them as for Anakin, this was Ahsoka Tano. Proof of this happens in three instances. The first being how he refused to believe she was dead after she and another padawan blew up a droid factory on Geonosis and actively searched for her. The second is who distraught he got when she was kidnapped and had to find her own way back to him. And the third was how he was the only one who believed in her innocence when she was accused of bombing the Jedi temple of killing a suspect and tirelessly worked to prove her innocence. For Lelouch it was Kallen and C.C as when C.C lost her memories, he treated her with love and kindness and when he lost his temper and lashed out at her, immediately regreted it and worked to make up for it while with Kallen, he wanted her to live and return to Ashford, even if that meant he would die alone.**

 **Both were out of the box thinkers who regularly came up with fantastic and brilliant battle plans or tactics that both allies and enemies would not see coming and therefore be caught flat footed by such designs. However this out of the box thinking would make it hard for others in ranking positions to follow. Case in point, Obi-wan would routinely be surprised by the actions Anakin would take while the entire Black Knight command staff were almost always left in the dark to Zero's plans.**

 **Although both stood for justice and truth, they weren't afraid to use tactics and in some cases, strategies that were more chaotic good. In one episode of Clone wars, when Ahsoka along with another padawan and clone soldiers are infected with a dangerous infection, Anakin was willing to beat their Geonosian prisoner till he told him how to cure it, which he did and he got the cure. When Obi-wan asked how he got it, he didn't give a straight answer. As for Zero…do I really need to say?**

 **Both destroyed orders that took in(abducted) children and trained them as agents and/or members. Sure the Jedi were painted in a better light in the original trilogy but the following sequels and the Clone Wars cartoon showed us that not only were they flawed but backwards in their way of thinking as even in the new trilogy, Luke discovers that the order had fallen from their original path as Jedi started to obsess with being sided/aligned to the light and fearing the dark side to the point where they refused the adapt and sought to destroy those who practiced the dark side in every way.  
This was not what the Jedi were supposed to be all about as the first Jedi order sought to be the masters of the grey, they trained and studied to be able to look at a situation, look at the evidence and act on that to reach the best possible outcome. Basically, the order had fallen to fear and paranoia, something that Jedi weren't supposed to feel.  
Hell when Ahsoka was accused of bombing the temple, only Anakin was willing to not only believe she didn't do it but do a real investigation into who was the real culprit, even Obi-wan turned on her. We know that the Jedi council decided on this to save face as their participation in the war wasn't popular from the start and as the war dragged on and the bodies piled, more and more people started to question why 'peace-keepers' were generals in an army.  
This act showed they favoured public favour over doing their actual jobs and giving the girl, who was 14-15yrs old at the time, a fair trial and conduct a proper investigation. It was actually reasonable why Baris bombed the temple as when she was brought to court by Anakin, she not only admits to it but she preaches about how the Jedi had fallen and become an army of the dark side(Which was kinda true as we all know Palpartine was a Sith Lord and was the head of the republic military due to the senate granting him emergency power, therefore the Jedi were technically warriors fighting for a Sith Lord)**

 **My point here that for someone like me, who knows far more about the sequels and original trilogy, I can say these two were cut from the same cloth and might have been good friends if not friendly rivals.**

 **Vein Bloodborne – My reader, Star Wars is a Space Opera while Code Geass is famed for its plot-twists so expect this won't be a cut and dry story. Order and chaos will make many appearances.**

 **TianYi – Yes it is, but at the time….I wasn't at my creative best.**

 **Geer123 – Did you expect any less from the same guy who ordered the destruction of an entire order? One with men, women and children?**

* * *

 **Chapter 25: Connecting the dots**

 **15th October 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Unknown location in central Japan**

"Sir." One of the guards on duty said as he along with the other saluted their leader as he walked out of the interrogation room. He had been in there for almost seven hours….questioning Rolo for everything he knew and had gotten but he wanted.

"I got what I needed out of the little brat." Zero said as the door closed behind him, allowing both men to flinch when they saw the charred and broken body that was Rolo-the blood spatter on the table, walls and floor merely added to the picture that screamed something really painful happened in there, to be honest they weren't even sure he was alive. "Clean up the mess."

"Sir. How shall we do that?" The other asked as they had yet to need to get rid of bodies in the III so that didn't have protocol for such.

"Shoot him, then have the body burned. Not like he has anyone who would claim the remains." Zero instructed them as figured they could just start a bonfire and toss the body in.

"Right away." They both replied as they saluted again and as one went off to get some garbage bags they can use while the other enter the room with his pistol at the ready. This left Zero alone in silence with but one other person.

.

.

.

"I don't really care for your opinions on my methods. We got the info." Zero said after some tense moments to S.K. as had known he had watched just about the entire session, only leaving in the last hour or so.

"And in the process, you both mentally scarred and physically crippled him." S.K stated firmly as they both heard a gunshot go off from inside the room. Clearly the boy had indeed survived the torture but not the bullet.

"Your point? We've been over this already." Zero retorted as they started to walk off, as they turned the corner the before mentioned guard rushed passed them with a few heavy duty garbage bags. "I'll call a meeting in a few days, didn't think I'll be here so late." He finished as he looked down at his watch and saw it was 3am.

"And what will you do till then?" S.K asked him, still sounding disappointed in his friend's methods but knowing he would neither apologise nor change them.

"Rest of course, I've been awake for almost 25 hours now. I'm quite exhausted under this helmet." Zero said as they met up with Tierra who looked like he had been awake just as long as his superior.

"I'll have them prepare rooms for us to stay the….morning as it seems." Tierra said as he looked over at the corner screen of his data pad and saw the time.

"Excellent, see to it." Zero stated as he turned and walked down another corridor, to where the two of them didn't know.

* * *

 **18th October 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Black Knight Kanto Command:**

"So," Lockon said as he sat down in his seat. "You got some results?" He asked as he along with the rest of the command staff had gathered for this meeting, including Rakshata who had claimed the sofa for herself.

"Indeed. After interrogating our guest I was able to discover some interesting information." Zero said to the group as he pulled out numerous folders and handed them out for each and every person to review.

"More like torture." Nunnally said with a frown on her face as she had already heard what had become of the kid they had captured.

"Sister, we have better things to worry about then my methods of extracting valuable info." Zero said as he opened up his own folder. "Now, onto the subject of this meeting. It seems we have more to worry about then we first anticipated."

"How so?" Alleujah asked as he turned through the report, pausing when it got to the condition Rolo was in prior to his death and cremation.

"Our guest was able to reveal that the power he has is called 'Geass'. It's a supernatural ability that differs from person to person but they all one main similarity. The fact that it effects the mind." Zero revealed to them all, catching all of them off guard enough that even Rakshata removed the pipe from her mouth to seriously look at this report.

"The mind? Like illusions?" The scientist asked him.

"In some cases yes, but what I mean is that is they effect the minds of the user or those around them. Due to this, it can only work in intelligent lifeforms as animals with underdeveloped frontal lobes seem to be immune to its effects." S.K answered as he had watched most of the actual interrogation.

"So droids aren't affected?" Nunnally asked as they made considerable use of them in construction purposes. With the right supervisor, they could work harder and faster than most people. Plus it helped that they were relatively cheap so losing one or 30 in a cave in wasn't that big a loss.

"All machines and inanimate objects. Also, it does share similarities to the force magic used by the Night-Sisters in the regard that it isn't something you are born with but rather something that is given to you…by an immortal." Zero dropped another bomb onto the group. Silencing them all.

.

.

.

"…I'm sorry but for a second there I thought you said that this geass thing is something one gets from immortals." Lockon said as he sat up straight and cleaned his eye with his pinkie.

"That's what I said. It seems that these 'Code Bearers' are a sort of bridge to the force, I speculate that this connection to the force allows them immortality as our guest said more than once that his master, a being by the name of 'V.V' doesn't age and can't be killed." Zero said as Rolo had insisted that this V.V was more powerful than him and would destroy him. He was not ashamed to admit that his pride didn't take that all that well and he wound up breaking the boy's arm.

'V.V…that's the same type of name as C.C.' Nunnally realised as she saw that true to his words, those were the letters listed as the name.

'Lelouch must have made that connection by now, but the question is what he'll do with this information.' Suzaku asked as ever since, he had acted like he hadn't learn something like this around their house-guest.

"Can't be killed…?" Oscar repeated, the very thought was troubling to say the least.

"That's what this…Rolo kept insisting but personally, I'll believe it this V.V. if he survives me cutting his head off." Zero confirmed for them, though he was careful to remind them that even if the source of this info truly believed it, it does not make it true.

"You said that this geass power differs from person to person?" Warwick asked as according to the report, the other geass user had a completely different power, though it was only a theory at this point.

"Yes, from what Rolo said and my own admittedly little experience with the power, each person obtains a unique ability capable of one thing. In Rolo's case, we can assume that his power interferes with how the mind perceives the passage of time, making it that for his victims, time is standing still." Zero informed them, the notion of such a power sending a shiver down everyone's spine.

"Quite the power…for an assassin." Kallen said, trying to shake the fear out of herself.

"Yes, I can imagine that it would be very difficult to defend yourself from someone like that. Well…" Liu Mei added in her thoughts to the discussion. "Besides using automated defences."

"How is that you came out in top?" Alleujah asked their leader since if this was true, he shouldn't have had a chance.

"This is just a theory for now as I haven't had the chance to properly test it but," Zero said slowly as he contemplated telling him his theory but decided to go for it. "I believe that my own strong connection to the force along with years of training against Jedi Mind Tricks have given me and those like me…how should I put this? A strong resistance to such things."

"That might be the case, when he tried to use it when I was in there, time just seemed…slowed and the actions sluggish but I could still tell time was moving." S.K said, they had already spoken about it and decided that they could speck of such matters around Rakshata as one-her communications were being intercepted by their agents before they could reach whoever she was talking to so they could just block out sensitive info and two-she would need proof if anyone was to take her seriously and she didn't have the clearance to access such.

"Well he won't be a problem so why don't we move on to the one that got away?" Liu Mei asked as no matter how scary an opponent this Rolo could have been, he was dead and gone.

"That would be wise." Zero agreed with her as he turned the page of the folder to another section. "The other agent from what I was able to pull from Rolo is called/named whatever you prefer-Reginald. He had the ability to turn others into puppets so long as they are in his range. Now role wouldn't say but judging from the distance he was from Hajime Yuko during the…incident," Zero paused as everyone gave a moment of silence for the dead, though Rakshata only kept quiet as to not stick out as much. "That is range must be greater than 200m"

"So it means they could pull this stunt again?" Alleujah asked them group.

"Not likely," Oscar interrupted. "Before they were moving with complete secrecy and in the shadows, but now not only do we know about them but we know that these accidents were directly caused by them. If I were them, I would go to ground and think of a new course of action." He posed his thoughts to the group who took them in and thought about them and supposed they were a sound observation.

"Another shocking thing I found out was that for the past 20 years or so, this….Geass Order has been aligned with the Holy Britannian Empire or at the very least, their leadership and the emperor are allies, we have reason to believe that the OSI also makes use of these geass killers on lease for special mission assignments." Leila revealed to the group as she and Zero had looked over all the evidence they could get on this. She was confused as to why he called them an order till he explained Jedi and Sith to her and how the Jedi are actually a order of what should be religious warrior monks.

"Wait a minute, are you saying that the Goddamn emperor has these kinds of assassins at his beck and call?" Akito asked him, a vague memory his brother flashing in his mind causing a cold spike to move down his spine.

"That it what the evidence points to and it does add up." Leila told him, concerned that she was bringing up bad memories but she also knew it was necessary for him to know this. "Zero and I went through suspicious deaths and/or accidents over the past 20 years both within the empire, union and thanks to and our friends in the china, the federation n as well." She said as she took out her own series of folder, these ones thicker than the last and passed them around. "The results are troubling to say the least."

"What do you mean?" Kallen asked, scared of what the answer will be.

"If the files are to be believed, then Rolo alone would be responsible for the assassination of at least 56 people. When taking into account the abilities of the other one and same vague accounts Rolo spat out in his final hours of sound mind, this order has killed at least 450 people." Zero ripped the metaphorical band-aid off and told them all, making them all pause in shock as sure, they knew not to judge the boy by his looks but still, a body count that high wasn't anything to scoff at.

"When we looked into the identities of the victims, we found the victim pool contained two types of targets: Those who were a threat to Britannian national security or military operations; the second…were those who could have proved or were threats to Charles zi Britannian and his rule." Leila said as slowly but surely, everyone opened up their files and started reading. Needless to say, the amount of victims and locations, styles of killing and the sheet effective nature of this shadow organisation was terrifying.

"Jesus, this kid killed an entire family?" Kallen asked as she read file Case number C-06: The motor accident(COD) of Viscount Joseph I Walton, Baroness Elizabeth Walton, Kennedy Walton and youngest Simon Walton. Date April 9th 2011 a.t.b

"From what the report said, that Viscount was an important figure in the movement to reduce the power of the emperor. After he and his wife and two sons died in a car accident, all those who sided with him in the House of Lords backed down." Zero said to them as they could all connect the dots about how each and every one of these assassinations only benefitted Britannia or in many of the cases, the current ruler. They all turned the pages till they came to the next one. Case number C-07: The murder of Colonel Lorenzo Pagliacci. Date May 3rd 2011 a.t.b

"Colonel Pagliacci was an intelligent and cunning man. I only met him once or twice but he was a diamond in the rough. He was pushing for the EU to abolish the practice of member states having their own armed forces and for the EU as a whole to create a single, unified military complex." Leila said as she recalled the rough faced brute of a man but he had an uncanny intellect and was strongly loyal. "Such a thing would mean that the EU would be much harder for Britannia to fight since it would mean more troops, equipment and resources can be brought to bear at any time." She finished as she revealed what they believed to be the reason he was killed, which also proved that Britannia was really gearing for a war in Europe and wanted it to run as smoothly as possible.

"And it says here he was shot during a rally in Vienna." S.K said as he went thought the small report as the Austrian police clearly didn't do a good job with this. "What's more suspicious is that bullet that killed him didn't even match the models carried by the soldiers in the hall at the time, and that the security cameras were turned off." This was also odd as it would have made more sense of Rolo used the make of gun or even stolen one of theirs, it would have thrown them off his trail. "Did they find the one who did it?"

"Maybe, the person who should have been watching the cameras was found dead in a bathroom stall, time of death was found to be at the same time as the colonel so he may or not have been in on it." Zero said as they all saw the picture of the dead man seated on the toilet, judging from the white substance coming out his mouth, he must have been poisoned.

"Another incident was 9 years ago, an investigative reporter was found dead in Rhode Island. Officially, the police reports concluded it was a robbery gone wrong as he was missing his wallet, phone and watch." Zero said as they turned only two pages this time to the new one. Case number B-13: The Robbery of Richard Angle. Date April 17th 2008 a.t.b. "But when we looked into it, we discovered there were rumours that he was investigating a low level noble who was deeply connected to the royal family. If the rumours are the believed, then if his investigation went on and was brought to light, it would have been quite the scandal." Zero revealed to them.

"And there was another account of a Burgravine who died in a 'freak boating accident' off the coast of Florida six years ago. According to what we dug up about her life, she was fervently opposed to treatment of numbers and was a vocal critic of the empire's more daring conquests in northern African as the regions themselves didn't offer enough resources to justify invasion and occupation." Lockon said as he read ahead to case number E-14 The death of Burgravine Ashley Hamilton. Date 11th August 2018 a.t.b

"And as a reward for a humane stance, her boat suffered an engine failure and blew up. She and three of her friends were killed." S.K said as he tightened his hold on the folder. If this was all true…then there was no saving Charles, he was willing to kill anyone who opposed him.

"So essentially, your father is using magical girls and boys to hunt down and kill any who would threaten his rule or dare to challenge his directives?" Liu Mei asked him as this was what it boiled down to.

"That would be the case, I always knew that greedy bastard was just a tyrant but this…this proves that a quick death would be too merciful." Zero growled out as he felt the dark side start to swim through his veins much more intensely than normal. If he was looking in the mirror then he would have seen the white of his eyes turned black as night while his royal, rich purple eyes changed to crimson, malevolent red.

"What I want to know is how so many deaths, so many 'accidents and tragedies' could not be noticed." Kallen asked as they went through the files and more and more Britannians showed up in them. Spread from commoners to low level nobility.

"That's simple. For those within the empire. You forget that just about every news organisation is either state owned, controlled or heavily rely on financial support from the state or the wealthy. They would never report on anything that would make the empire look bad and as we all witness, would rather put a nationalistic spin on things to make the empire look good or make them the victims. Remember the terrorist attack in Osaka?" Nunnally asked them all, though some drew blanks since it wasn't prime time news even when the story broke.

"Yep, they reported that there around 65 victims but emphasized the 8 Britannians who died." Tierra said as he made it his business to watch the evening news every day. if he proved to be busy, he'll record it.

"For the murders outside of Britannian colonies, would the EU or federation really report that so many of their people were dying and they had no clue as to why?" Zero asked them even though they all knew the answer. "Of course not, that'll make them look bad."

"Another thing to consider is the fact that for most people with full citizenship in Britannia, life is good, high standard of living, good healthcare and education, good income even for the lower class, plenty of distractions such as the arts and sports. So it's naturally that people won't look too deeply or seriously think of their foreign and domestic policies." Nunnally said as it was sad but true. When people have something to lose and are not assured a gain if they step in and voice their thoughts, then more often or not. They won't.

"Add that in with a good dose of propaganda being subtle spoon fed to you since diapers with a pinch of ignorance about the world around them and its clear to see why many Britannians, even commoners are so patriotic or merely willing to do nothing." Zero said as he could pull anyone off the streets and ask them and chances, 8 out of 10 will say they support the government and military.

"So what's our play?" Akito asked, all this talk was getting to him and he wanted something he could do about it.

"I was able to extract the details on two OSI safe-houses. I say we raid them and capture as much information as we can. Zero proposed to them all, a vote that didn't even need to happen since all present were for it.

"Agreed, but how would we go about it?" Lockon asked as they started to brainstorm ideas about how to strike each of the locations. They wanted to do so within minutes of each other to give no quarter for their targets to escape or destroy the information they wanted. This went on for three whole hours as such a strike would need back-up on back-up plans to ensure the highest rate of success.

* * *

 **18** **th** **October 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Somewhere in Area 3:**

 **Unknown Location:**

 **Geass Directorate North American Command:**

"Director. You summoned us?" One of the cloaked and masked members of the directorate command asked as he along with 3 others stood in front of their master.

"Yes, I've had some time to think about that…issue in area 11 and have come to a decision." V.V said as he played with a lock of his extremely long hair.

"Which is?" Another inquired of him.

"Reginald will stay in area 11 but he will join up with Cornelia. That way he can still be of some use." V.V announced as he had taken time to seriously think about this and came to the conclusion that they needed their agent to remain where he was.

"So he will still act against the Black Knights?" One asked as another wrote down those orders for later.

"Yes, I want you to create a new identity for him and send him the information. Now that Zero knows what he looks like, it's only a matter of time before Zero acts not that he thinks he has the upper hand." V.V replied. He wasn't foolish enough to think that Zero wouldn't act not that one of his own was captured. Lucky for them, Rolo and Reginald weren't told too much about their operations in Area 11. The most they knew would only affect the OSI while they didn't know anything of consequence about the order. It paid to divide his agents into sects and ensure that they knew nothing about the others.

"And what shall Reginald do to gain the viceroy's trust?" One asked as Cornelia was well to hate the intricate nature of politics and decorum. It would not be easy to just send someone her way.

"He is to give her all the information he has on Zero and the Black Knights," V.V revealed to them, shocking some as they didn't think he would so open about this. "Don't act so surprised, even if Cornelia has no hope of defeating him as things stand now, she can still prove useful in bleeding him of men and resources as well as giving us more chances to see what his capabilities are."

"Of course my lord, it shall be done." One replied as they all bowed to him before making their way out.

"See it so." He dismissed them as they all left the room, leaving him with his thoughts. 'If only I can capture this Zero, he would make a wonderful pawn. But that's unlikely so I'll have to settle for killing him instead.' V.V thought to himself as he got up from his throne and turned around to gaze at the painting behind him.

A painting of a thought elevator.

* * *

 **20th October 2020 a.t.b./3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

 **Viceroy's Palace:**

 **Knock Knock**

"Your highness." Guilford asked through the door. He had been rather busy as of late and as a consequence, had not seen his princess since breakfast hours prior.

"Enter Guilford." He heard the response through the door before he opened it and stepped in before closing the door behind him.

"I hate to sound cliché but I bring good news, bad news and a something that can swing either way." Guilford said as he approached her desk and saluted her like he usually did though from the looks of it, she hadn't had time to relax either seeing how there were numerous reports scattered around the table top. From a passing glance, he could see that they were all about attacks credited to the Black Knights.

"Of course that's what I have to deal with." Cornelia grumbled to herself as she reached for the bridge of her nose to try and keep the headache away. "Alright, let's start with something to lift my mood, good news."

"Yes your highness," Guilford responded before he handed her the report he had been holding this whole time. "I just received word from the A.S.E.E.C unit. Lady Enneagram new knightmare has been completed. They only need to run some tests to make the final adjustments."

"That is some good news. My brother was also interested in the project and granted that lunatic scientist another 1,500,000 just to ensure it was completed." Cornelia replied as she read through the report on the new model and was quite jealous that her dear friend and senior soldier was the one to have such a weapon of war.

"Well them, let us hope it was money well spent." Guilford replied though he kept it to himself that he thought that money came from the 2nd prince's own pockets.

"Indeed, so what name did Lloyd give his new knightmare?" She asked him as she read through it and only saw it's model number which was ZEOP-01

"Bors."

"The king or the younger?" Cornelia asked as she raised her eyebrow at the name. she may be versed in Arthurian legend like any of other royal but it always puzzled her why their R&D divisions insisted on branding their knightmare after such figures.

"Younger, the one who proved worthy of the Holy Grail." Guilford replied as he had asked the same question when Ms. Croomy had informed him. It would have been the mad scientist himself but he apparently passed out as soon as he finished it hours earlier. It seemed that pulling two all nighters with only coffee to sustain him had finally caught up with the man.

"Hmmm…fitting seeing how she was always the stubborn one when it came to how she did things." Cornelia had to concede there. She could recall one time during a party Nonette had forced her to attend that Nonette kiss a duke's son merely because she was holding out till she found 'the one'. Of course, she would have done same, she was never one to care for truth or dare.

"I was also informed that the upgraded Gloucesters were scrapped, rather the A.S.E.E.C chose to completely build the Glaston knights new machines based on the Lancelot." Guilford said as he had originally gone down to R&D to demand why it had been so long since they last got an update reporting on their progress.

"Is that right?" Cornelia paused as she considered the possibilities of that which in hindsight, outweighed those of just refitted gloucesters. "What are they?"

"They are prototype models that if they prove successful, will enter limited mass production for now. They are called Vincents and we along with the Glaston Knights will receive the Commander Models." Guilford reported verbally as Ms. Croomy had assured him she would prepare a report on it and send to straight to the viceroy as soon as she completed it.

"Excellent. If there as effective as the Lancelot, then we can start making some progress against those elevens." Cornelia said as he mind flashed to a certain masked man and her grip on her pen tightened to the point where it bent a little. "But since I know there was more, what's the bad news?"

"Our order for more knightmares as well additional pilots was met but rather than sunderlands and gloucesters. We are being sent sunderlands and liverpools." Guilford couldn't help it as he made a face as he revealed that piece of information.

"Liverpools!? Those things are just glorified security units. You'll have better chances with the Gun-Rus. At least they cost less to replace." Cornelia was of same mind as him as really, the Liverpool was a complete screw-up of a knightmare as even a Glasgow could run circles around it and according to reports from the field, would suffer lower losses. Why the Liverpool was still in production was something Cornelia would never know.

"I'm afraid so." Guilford replied with a sigh as he fixed his glasses. "I've already started working on the refusal letter and have contacted another base in area 3 to see if they can't pick up the slack."

"See to it that you do. And what's the last thing you wanted to tell me?" Cornelia asked as she recalled he said he had three things to discuss with her.

"There appears to be an OSI agents here," Guilford started as a frown worked its way onto his face. "He wishes to speak with you, and only you."

"OSI? I was never informed that they were active in area 11." That wasn't protocol dammit, she was the current viceroy and should have been informed of those cowards and backstabbers operating in her jurisdiction.

"That was the concern but all his credentials and ID checked out. He was also searched for listening devices and weapons. He only had a small dagger on him which has already been confiscated." Guilford informed her as personally saw to it that this agent was no threat to his princess.

"And his name?" The 2nd princess asked, an anger growing inside of her at the blatant act to disrespect her committed by the OSI who didn't even see it fit to inform her of their actions.

"Michael Pennington. We've contacted the OSI Regional HG and they confirm he is one of them." Guilford reported.

"Then send him in." She ordered him to which he saluted her again and crisply walked out of the room. It was a minute or two later that the door opened again and her guest walked in.

'Is this him? He seems too young to have legally made it this far but when has the OSI ever cared about the legality of an issue?' Cornelia wondered to herself as she took in his appearance. It looked to be far too young physically since he appeared to be at best, 16 but from the look in his eyes she could tell her had seen his fair share of death and destruction. The dirty blonde hair and cold steel eyes cemented the look. "You're Pennington?" She asked him aloud, having taken all she could from his outward appearance.

"Yes your highness, Michael Pennington. Indo-Pacific OSI section." The newly names Michael replied as he gave her a salute while keeping his emotions hidden.

"I have been informed that you wish to speak with me?" She inquired as she gestured towards the seat in front of her desk.

"Yes your highness. For the past few weeks. I have been conducting spy work in the ghettos. Gathering any information on the Black Knights that I could." Michael answered as he took the before mentioned seat.

"Weeks? And why wasn't I informed if this?" Cornelia asked him, her frown an easy tell that she wasn't pleased.

"I would not know, you highness, I merely did as I was ordered. You would have to speak with my superiors if you wish for an explanation." Michael gave his answer, though he could care less as to how she feels, so long as he did his mission as directed by his master.

"I think I will. Continue." Cornelia ordered him, already thinking of how she have to deal with this new…annoyance.

"Yes your highness. From my efforts, I was able to discover that not only are the Black Knights clearing the debris from ghettos they have the largest influence but they are recycling it. From what the rumours and few foot soldiers talk about. It seems they are taking the concreate the recover and turning it back into concreate mix." Michael reported as he laid out some photos of said Black knights moving concreate into trucks and flatbeds and transporting them away. Another one showed them entering an old subway tunnel.

"So that would point to Zero building something. Perhaps a fortified headquarters." Cornelia theorised as they already concluded the masked man kept on the move and didn't still in one place too long.

"That would be my first assumption but it could be that they are building smaller regional bases as it has already been discovered that the Black Knights operate dozens if not hundreds of locations across area 11." Michael revealed as the order had themselves concluded that there were numerous smaller BK bases across the board so that even if one or two are hit, it would affect the organisation as a whole.

* * *

(Meanwhile with Euphemia)

"Apologies once more, your highness. I wish that I could have done this sooner but-" Claudio said as he and the pink princess cleaned out his father's old office.

"There is no need to apologise Sir Claudio. We have all been rather occupied as of late so it would make sense this would have been pushed back." Euphemia honestly replied as she went through the books and files on the book case.

"Still your highness, my brothers and I should have done this sooner." Claudio countered as he put some used paper into the desk bin which was starting to fill up, her father always had the habit of planning with pen and paper which always lead to well over a dozen pages with nothing but useless plans or scribbles.

"They are all conducting piloting tests with the A.S.E.E.C unit and couldn't make it. However I would like to know why you aren't with them." Euphemia noted as she paused to think about it. She did recall hearing about them booking some training time.

"Believe it or not, your highness but," Claudio started with a laugh. "We all drew straws and I got stuck with the shortest. With them gone, I thought it would be best to use the time to clean up our father's office. Things in her have been collecting dust for too long." At his answer, Euphemia also laughed as she could definitely see a child of Dalton having such a plan. He rarely did it himself but when he did-he always won against both Guilford and Cornelia.

"That is quite the tale, though I'm happy to help since this is not really a one person task." She said as she looked around at the relatively small office but nonetheless, she recalled how it took the man himself two days to everything in.

"And I will be eternally grateful." Claudio answered with a smile but he looked around the place, a tear in his eye. "It's hard to believe it sometimes, that he's gone. Some days it just feels like he shipped out on one of longer tours like he used to when we were younger." Euphemia came closer to him and placed a friendly hand on his shoulder, she would have been miffed about the fact that like everyone else around here, he was taller but she didn't let it bother her right now.

"Losing someone close to your heart is always a challenging experience." Euphemia told him with a cheerless smile, one he picked up on.

"You speak from experience?" Claudio asked as but she didn't respond immediately, rather she looked at the wall, as if gazing at something he could not see for himself but must have been captivating.

"…Yes….yes I do…" Euphemia said as she recalled the funerals of her many half-siblings she had attended over the years. She was sure that some of them were legitimate accidents and illnesses but for the most part, it didn't take a genius to know they were killing each other off. One thing she disliked was the fact that since there were over 200 imperial children, most of them never stuck out to the public so the death of one or two of these lesser sons and daughters of the emperor never made the news.

"Forgive me if I brought up sad memories." Claudio apologised as she wiped away a tear from her eye.

"Oh no, it's nothing really. It's just…been some time since we lost them." She said as she thought back to a particular sibling duo she hadn't seen in over a decade.

'Them?' Claudio asked himself as he caught that slip-up but for the sake of her privacy he didn't push it. And with that, they got back to work cleaning up the place but while the princess was cleaning out his desk, she found some odd looking notes as they were held together in a single red binder in a sea of green and light yellow binders.

"Hmmm? What's this?" She asked herself as she picked it up and saw that it was larger than she thought.

"Notes?" Claudio asked as he came round to see it for himself.

"Is that odd?" Euphemia asked she moved the thing around in her hands and found that there was an unusual bump in it, meaning there was something else in it.

"Well yes, father always used a data pad when he could help it." Claudio started before she opened the thing and saw the contents of the file, along with a small flash-drive taped to the back of the binder's cover. "What in the world…"

"Are these…?" Euphemia asked as she looked over what was in front of her and saw that Andreas was onto something big.

"He was conducting his own investigation unto who Zero was." Claudio breathed out as she gazed at the detailed reports that not only Dalton put together but copies of other reports pertaining to the BK and their masked leader. "And it looks like he had a breakthrough." He suggested as he eyes the flash-drive as he pulled it out and examined it.

"We need to get this to Jeremiah, right away." Euphemia said with urgency as she decided that cleaning could wait.

* * *

(Some time later)

"Jeremiah, was there a reason you requested this meeting." Cornelia asked as she along with her knight of honour, the knight of nine, the two premier members of the A.S.E.E.C., the Glaston Knights, the two highest ranking members of the purists and the sub-viceroy.

"There was, you highness. Thanks to sub-viceroy and sir Claudio. We have uncovered more information on Zero." Jeremiah started with a nod to the before mentioned two as he pulled out the flash he was given to analyse and plugged it into his terminal.

"How?" Edgar asked as like the rest, he was left in the dark to what Jeremiah had been reviewing for the past three hours.

"It seems that our later father was conducting his own smaller investigation into him and he found a connection we can explore." Claudio told the gathered group before all their screens changed when a new window opened up to show one of the two videos on the flask. "Here watch this video footage." Then Jeremiah pressed play. The video itself wasn't too shocking as it was one of the few videos they had of Zero fighting outside of a knightmare. This particular incident was when Zero took down a small refrain den on the outskirts of the settlements a couple mouths prior.

.

.

.

"And? Zero beats the ever loving hell outta of some thugs and drug pushers. We've had this on record for months." Bart said as he waved off the video. As impressive that was the man's fighting style, he didn't see the important of such.

"Yes but now watch this." Jeremiah said as a second window opened up and this time, they saw a match between two Britannian youths in military academy attire fighting. Guilford was about the question the meaning of these two unrelated scenes when like everyone else, he spotted the connection. The student in the video pulled off the same sword thrust feint-slash-spinning heel kick as Zero did.

.

.

.

"Notice something?" Villetta asked them all as she saw the shock on each and every one of their faces at this piece of information.

"That move Zero did, it looked similar." Cornelia breathed out as Jeremiah played both moments side by side and they could all see that Zero performed the technique flawlessly.

"Not just similar. We went over it over a dozen times. It was the same." Kewell said as he was one refused to believe this at first but after the 6th time, even he had to concede. "That was a recording from the Imperial Knights academy in Area 5, taken in 2016 during their graduation performance."

"General Dalton put the two together and realized that since the different knight academies all have their own unique regiments for training. Whoever Zero is, he would have been either trained there or been in close contact with someone who did." Jeremiah explained to them as he head read through the dead man's finding and was very surprised by them. If the man were still with them, he would suggest he retire and become a criminal investigator.

"Which means we can focus our search on anyone who had been a student there along with their friends and families. Also look into their financial records if you can. They may have gotten paid to do so or to buy their silence." Cornelia caught their drift and picked it up from there. If this was true then it meant that they could decrease the pool of suspects for Zero.

"Yes your highness!" They all replied, though Lloyd's was half-assed but Cornelia had already gotten used to it to the point the urge to shoot him wasn't as strong.

"Is there anything else?" Cornelia asked the assembled group but much to her ire, the one person she wanted to keep still and shut up chose this moment to pitch in.

"Why yes there is. With Lady Enneagram's knightmare complete. We can begin work on our other projects immediately." Lloyd announced to the group as a whole "With the extra funding Schneizel provided, we can have them finished by the end of the week." At least he gave them good news. After this the meeting went on for a couple more hours before it ended.

* * *

(Meanwhile – With Lelouch)

While this important meeting of the colonial forces was taking place, Lelouch sat at home-in the dojo as he knelt in the middle of the room. He was meditating as to calm his soul and keep himself rational. In this state of silence he could feel the winter's cold touch since he wore nothing but a sleeveless sweatshirt and some baggy pants. He could hear the sounds of the chimes as they sung their soft, soothing melody by the opened wooden panel doors. In this silence, he meditated as he had long since accepted, accepted that unlike his friend and dear younger sister. He would never truly stand in the light. His soul was too tainted, his spirit too broken by his struggles. Over the years, he had been put through counselling and training regiments as to keep himself from giving into his anger and falling to the same trap as any Sith-the dark side.

As much as Nunnally wanted to believe otherwise, his connection to the dark side was powerful, far more powerful than most Sith Lords of this age and the past. If not for his masters, he would have begum something truly terrifying. He could still recall those days, when all he and his confidants did was train.

* * *

(Flashback – Six years ago)

" _Again." Master Kaden said for what felt like the hundredth time that day. It wasn't the best time for training as the Martian sun was baring down on them through the artificial atmospheric barrier, why his master thought it was a good idea to train outside was beyond him._

" _But…Master…" Lelouch tried to oppose as he was tired and sweating through the light training garb he had been wearing for the better part of the day. He wished that his master chose the air-condition training hall but sadly for him, they were training a section of the base with no cover from buildings or any of the new trees that were planted two years back._

" _Again!" Sadly for him, his master was not in a forgiving mood and merely used to force to harshly pick him and up and drop him on his feet. It was because this wasn't the first time that he was able to land on his feet and stay up. "How do you expect to survive if this," He said as he motioned to what he had been doing for the past two hours. Lifting up a upside down glass pyramids of three different sizes and gently placing them back into their stands so they don't break. "Is the best you can muster."_

" _I…can't!" Lelouch breathed out, exhausted from doing nothing but this the whole damn time. He used to think that telekinesis would not affect the body like this but he was wrong, so wrong. It felt like he had ran a marathon around Central Park in New York, twice._

" _Yes you can! Your connection to the force is unlike anything I've ever seen. Your body is still much too weak, your sister can already beats you 6 out of 10 times in your sparring matches." Kaden just had to remind of that, he still couldn't get over how hard everyone laughed when he got pinned trice by her. "However, when you tap into the force, your physical capabilities rapidly increase, to the point where you can fight on par with Suzaku. Do you know why?" Kaden went on, bringing up one particular incident when he was able to fight off Suzaku for over 20 minutes before he lost._

" _Because….the force….gives me streng-!" He started, giving the answer he often heard Nunnally and Suzaku give when asked something of this nature but his answer was found to be wanting._

" _No, it is because of emotions!" The ex Sith lord told him. "You despise defeat, loath being weak, are disgusted by the very notion of not being in control of yourself!" He listed off the more competitive aspects of his personality. "But…more than anything, you seek the power to protect those you hold dear, and to avenge what you have lost." He explained as he came forward and placed a hand on his sweaty shoulder._

" _Whenever you find yourself backed into a corner, you tap into a well of the force to give you the power you need to survive, to protect…. to avenge. I have never encountered anything else like in all my years boy, you have the potential to be great, but only if you train yourself hone your skills, keep trying new things." The old master told him as he laid another on his cheat, right above his beating heart._

" _There is more to you then hate and anger. You also hold love, kindness and mercy in your heart." He continued as he gestured at some of the pyramids and stepped back._

" _Call on that connection, that hatred, the anger will be your fuel. So light the fires!" With those words, Lelouch took them to heart and calmed himself down before he lifted his arms out and called out to the force to life his targets._

" _grrrrrAAAAAAAH!" He screamed as he felt the exhaustion setting in as the rocks rumbled before slowly but surely lifting up into the air. He kept them like that for a few seconds before he gently placed them back down into their slots._

" _Excellent. What is your weight limit?" Kaden asked him out the blue._

" _[Ha-ha-ha] 875kg." Lelouch answered, though he was too tired to wonder why that was important right now._

" _And how much do you think you just lifted into the air?" Kaden asked him, a ghost of a smile on his face as he looked at his confused pupil._

" _I d-don't know[ha] maybe 850kg." Lelouch answered him, he wasn't really paying attention to the sizes of the pyramids he lifted, only focusing on lifting them and not breaking them like he did the first couple…dozen._

" _Hmm." Kaden smiled at him before he pointed to the three that he had lifted, two were of the largest weight and the second was the middle weight. "More along the lines of 1,275kg."_

" _I did?" Lelouch gaped as he couldn't believe it, he blew his old record out of the water with that!_

" _Yes my apprentice. Your emotions are your fuel, your goals are your drive but logic and peace of mind will be your control. Now," Kaden instructed him as he pointed to another four, three of which were of heaviest they had. "Try again but this time, try to control yourself, direct the force as it passes through you. Remember, true focus lies between rage and serenity." He preached to him his findings after years of study and conflict with the Jedi._

" _Yes master." He replied to the older man before he centred himself and let both good and bad memories flow through his mind's eye. He allowed himself to get lost in his emotions but never drown in them, it was principle he didn't understand till now. 'Don't just use your hate, but also your love.' With that final thought, he rose his hands and as he did so, all four of his targets slowly lifted into the air. He didn't stop there as he then moved them around, spinning them in a circle around himself much to his master's joy before he paused and then spun them on their own axis. Unlike before, he could feel the force keeping his stamina up so he wasn't nearly as drained as he should be. It did this for another few seconds before he moved each one back into its original place and softly let them touch down._

" _How was that?" Lelouch smiled to his master as he turned to face him. The look of pride on the older man's face was something he felt he had earned, making it feel all the more satisfying._

" _Impressive, very impressive. You just lifted and moved around a 2,125kg worth of solid glass." Kaden praised him as he closed his own eyes. Never before had he seen someone so young do such a thing. Most is age could life maybe 1,900kg if they pushed it._

" _Master, why do I have to use the glass pyramids when Suzaku and Nunnally use the stone?" Lelouch asked him as he walked over to his gear and pulled out a towel to wipe away the sweat he had worked up._

" _Control my boy, control." Kaden explained to him as he gestured to the pyramids which even after all this, were still in perfect condition. "I have seen you to be a perfectionist, what better way to hone that trait by having you move around glass pyramids, and not break them?" He asked his pupil who paused to think about it for a second before seeing that his master wasn't wrong._

" _Still feels like a punishment." Lelouch muttered to himself as he dropped the new used towel and walked back on over to his master since he had a feeling that his training for the day wasn't over._

" _Perhaps but don't ever forget that I am proud of you my student. You have come a long way these past three years." Kaden told him honestly as he looked up towards the sky as the sun set, giving them a excellent view of the approaching stars, some of the stars were ones you couldn't see from Earth._

" _Only because of your guidance." Lelouch responded, he may be prideful but he liked to think he could reign that in and show respect when needed._

" _The teacher opens the classroom door, it is the student that walks in." His elder shot back with an old quote. "Your dedication to your training is nothing to scoff at. I have none no youngling that has progressed as fast as you three." He told the boy as he thought back to the training he had done with the other younglings they has picked up. Nunnally was really growing into something of a wonder as the sensual aspect of her abilities was stunning to say the least._

" _Never forget that there is love in your heart, my boy. Mercy, kindness and a desire for friendship. These things are what keep you from becoming a Sith, so never let go of them." Kaden told him with a sincere smile as he knew that to be the defining trait of this young boy. He could never be a Jedi due to his past but he could have made a cunning and powerful Sith Lord if he had gone that path but he knew that the principles of the dark side were very flawed._

" _Yes master." Lelouch responded with a smile as he thought about all he had to protect, to cherish and to love. "I'll cherish the bonds I've made till the day I die and become one with the force."_

" _Good, now" Kaden started as he reached for his Standard(vanilla) lightsaber hilt, a smile he had seen too many times growing on the aged warrior's face, the one got before he kicked his ass into next week. "Why don't we get to our practice duel, shall we?" He asked/ordered as he activated his blade to let loose a long red beam of energy._

" _Yes master!" Lelouch responded as he used the force to pull both his curved hilt(duelling) lightsaber hilts into his hands and activated them, the purple blades matching his eyes in both beauty and intensity. For a moment, all was quiet as both merely locked eyes with their opponent, as they did so they started to move around, circling one another as Kaden took the standard stance of Form II while Lelouch took on a hybrid stance of Form II and Form V, though it was clear to the trained eye that Lelouch's stance was rather amateurish and unrefined._

 _As this happened, the two of them had garnered a small crowd, though Kaden noticed them-Lelouch did not, he was far too focused on the force master he was about to duel. All was quiet as they two surveyed each other, looking for an opening. One Lelouch saw._

 _He dashed forward with haste and thrust one of his blades towards his head, forcing him to move his head out of the way, once he did-he retracted the blade and with a quick twist, turned to slash both blades to Kaden's opposite side to which the elder blocked. Deciding it was time for a counterattack, Kaden knocked back his younger and swung down his blade onto his head, in response-Lelouch brought up both his blades to block with the standard 'x' block used by duel wielders._

 _Tapping into the force, Lelouch pressed his blades against his master with increased strength, pushing him back and forcing the blade-lock to break. With this, he spun around and brought one of his lightsabers which was quickly redirected by the more experiences fighter who fired off his own attack that Lelouch saw coming, and prepared for by blocking with his second lightsaber._

 _Wanting to switch things up, Kaden with his up till now, free hand reached out with the force and picked up one of the pyramids and threw it at him. Seeing it was one of the smaller ones, Lelouch battered it to the side. However in that small time he wasn't focused on Kaden, he used it to close the distance to try and end the fight. By the time Lelouch saw him, he was already bringing his lightsaber down-aimed for his side. He hastily blocked the strike but felt the strain of doing so in his wrist-in some corner of his mind, he remembered how they were shown how using proper form prevented wrist injuries._

 _The force of the blow, combined with his sloppy defence-drove him back where he could feel his feet lose contact with the ground. Seeing the situation for what it was, he tucked in his feet, back-flipped to right himself and landed back on his feet. Not one to give up easy, Lelouch went for another attack-thus beginning their bout as both showcased their skills by dodging, evading, striking, parrying or redirecting each other attacks. It was quite the sight._

" _Brother has improved." Nunnally noted as she and Suzaku watched the two going at it._

" _Yes, once upon a time, he would have lost by now." Suzaku agreed with her as they both saw how the dark haired boy was holding his own for the most part._

" _He does spend more time practicing his blade control than anything else." Nunnally added in as she could recall all the late hours he spent working on getting used to form II._

" _Still, it seems like his hasn't gotten rid of that pride, just look at his fighting style." Suzaku observed as they both turned their attention back to the two of sure enough, from his stance-fencing like thrust, reversals and counters. It seemed less like Lelouch was fighting and more like an intricate dance routine,_

" _You see it." He asked the younger girl who nodded, they could both see the grace and pride of form II in his movements but there was something more to it. They already knew he incorporated more aspects of form V into his style then they realised._

" _I do but its part of who he is." Nunnally said as they saw her brother be knocked away but before Kaden who press the advantage, Lelouch used to lightsaber to swipe dirt at his eyes, temporarily blinding him, allowing him to jump back to his feet-ready for more._

" _That was a dirty move." Suzaku remarked as they Kaden use a multi-purpose force push to keep Lelouch back while he worked the red sands out of his eyes._

" _You will find in battle, there is no such thing as 'fair'." Stephen told them both as he announced his presence to them, coming up beside Suzaku. He point was proven true when Kaden grabbed the boy by his hair and kneed him in the gut._

' _Is that the reason you were a lightsaber resistant ball guard?' Suzaku asked himself as he recalled seeing that piece of gear….though if he was honest, he wouldn't mind getting one himself._

" _One must be flexible in combat if they wish to succeed, not everyone can merely out power their opponent. You'll have to out-think them as well." Kaden advised them as Lelouch found himself thrown towards one of the many glass pyramids but unlike the other times, he turned himself to land on the side of the thing feet first, once his foot made contact with it-he allowed it to bent as he built up the force he needed. Once reached-he kicked up the now cracked surface back towards his opponent. He was determined to win._

* * *

(End – Flashback)

He didn't win that duel, sure he lasted much longer than usual-a full five minutes before he was disarmed and knocked to the ground. He wouldn't lie to himself and think that didn't piss him off but from a logical POV, it was to be expected. Kaden had decades upon decades worth of experience battling Jedi knights and masters. The best thing they had over the years was routine training spars with their masters and a droid by the name of Proxy which could imitate the fighting styles of up to 7 different people.

He felt the breeze getting colder and opened to his eyes to see that the sky was darkening. He had been in here for over two hours. No doubt his loving wife and child would come fetch him if he stayed any longer so he got up, left the place after locking it up and made his way for the main house. Sure he was a monster when it came to conflict, battle and war but right now…

He was a loving father and husband.

* * *

 **And that readers, marks the end of this chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it since it was quite enjoyable to write. The parts about supposed victims of the Geass Order was based off the list of people Rolo is suspected of killing that we see in episode 4 of R2. From Rolo's own point of view, it is clear that he isn't physiologically stable to mentally balanced as according to him, he kills people because he geass suited for it, nothing more. Also, we can see that he is either extremely arrogant or was never taught the value of teamwork as he thinks to himself and I quote: Team? The mission is what's important isn't it? Who cares about the team?" So it obvious that Geass agents rarely ever work together as he does not seems to understand that in order to increase the likelihood of a mission succeeding, there needs to be good team chemistry, you must also be able to trust any other member of the team and it's clear that Rolo does not as he kills a man just because he walked in on Villetta and himself talking about geass(which of itself, was a stupid move because (1) why send people to monitor Lelouch and track C.C if they aren't fully aware of what both can do, all C.C needs is a touch-even an indirect one to fuck up your head while Lelouch needs only eye contact and for you to hear his voice. And (2) how was Rolo going to explain to their superiors why they keep losing men? Because from the complaints of the other two men working with them, that was the fifth person he killed. I don't care if Charles and V.V are unfeeling bastards, do you know how hard it is to find and train good spies that you know** _ **won't**_ **stab** _ **you**_ **in the back? Rolo is basically killing off a rare resource because the only thing he knows how to do is kill.**

 **Also, on the matter of V.V and the geass Order. This one is based in North America so an attack on it would acquire the attacker to have the skills, equipment and man-power to launch an attack so close to the Britannian homeland on what is basically their home continent and get away with it. Also, from series, we see that very few actually knew where the order was based so the Bk at the moment doesn't even know where to look. On the topic of V.V supposed immortality, Lelouch and the others aren't going to take Rolo's word for it but they all know that such things aren't too far out of the realm of possibility but next chapter, they'll confront C.C about it. As one person pointed out, she hasn't done anything worth wild so far.**

 **Nonette's new knightmare will be unveiled in due time so don't worry about it. Also the whole thing with Dalton making the connection is a nod to his actual character as he was the first to realize that Zero not only fights against the ideals of Britannia but he in fact hates the royal family and wanted as he said 'blood' we can assume he didn't want to kill…all of them but a good chunk of it. So yes, I made it that he was conducting his own investigation in secret as a man who is willing to accept non-britannians into their military command structure also seems like the kind of man to suspect full blooded Britannians in that very same structure to be the untrustworthy ones.**

 **As for the flashback, pls keep in mind that Lelouch was 14 at the time, around the same age as** **Ahsoka in the Clone Wars cartoon so his skills were lacking. Also, I kept the whole weak body-at least in comparison to others with combat training and physical conditioning so he has to rely more on the force to keep up, much like someone like Palpatine or Yoda would due to their age.**


	26. The setting of the Stage

**Once again, we are back with another chapter. I'll keep this short as I don't much to say so let's just keep on the responses to the reviews.**

 **IS6A6E – Yeah, that king of showdown won't happen for a while, like in the sequel story to this one.**

 **Vein Bloodborne – You're not the first one to ask that I write another series of crossovers, the only problem is that for a lot of them, I've never watched these anime people suggest. I've already got to watch one of the Fate series and look into the Resident Evil games so a Certain Magical Index will take some time.**

 **Spiral-Voltron-Zero0Q1 – Thank you.**

 **Blaze1992 – Well yes, I see in the Star Wars cannon that there are beings out there with will-power strong enough to resist Jedi-mind control so I can't imagine that Jedi and Sith themselves don't go through some form of training to protect their own minds as well. So the effects of Geass will largely depend on the skill and talent of the force user you target.**

 **Geer123 – I'm trying to make it so V.V isn't as…well V.V as cannon. He still has his flaws but for now he sees that he needs the help with Zero as he and Charles would want to retain control over the Thought Elevator on Kamine Island.**

 **ChimaTigon – Man with scars get babes…I read that somewhere** **. Also, the plans with Shirley are in motion and I'm satisfied with them.**

 **Murraymint835 – If you wish it, then why don't you PM me with more details as it gotta fit as even if their half-siblings and Lelouch admits she was his first love – they're still on two opposing sides of a conflict and siblings so there would need to be serious set-up to remotely make it believable as I've already selected Kaguya for him to wed for political reasons so that he has a connection to Japan.**

* * *

 **Chapter 26: The setting of the Stage**

 **23** **rd** **October 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Outskirts of Kyoto Settlement:**

 **Sumeragi Clan Summer Home:**

"So this is your home?" Reyla asked as she along with her lover and child sat in a rather lavish living room of their host. The invitation itself had been surprising to say the least but it wasn't one they could just refuse without reason.

"My summer house." Kaguya corrected as she sat opposite them as she drank some tea. Although she wasn't expressing it, she was thoroughly enjoying how they both looked stunned by how large her house was. Sure she never really enjoyed having such things when her people stave and sleep in shacks but it was a family home built by her grandfather so she was pressed to keep it in her family.

"So big…" Alice said as she looked out the window and saw how large the garden was and how pretty the birds were as they flew around the trees and shrubs.

"Oh my dear, it isn't that big." Kaguya giggled as she answered, receiving a deadpan look from Lelouch and a nervous one from Reyla.

"Lady Kaguya, forgive me that that's not right." Reyla said.

"Oh?" Kaguya asked as she placed her cup of tea down.

"Kaguya, the compound is like three times larger than our home in the Tokyo settlement." Lelouch told her as he handed Alice a cookie from the plate on the table so she could munch on it. Something the little girl appreciated going by the smile on her face.

"Well when you hang our rich old men, such things tend to slip your mind." Kaguya laughed as it wasn't completely false as the other five houses-(excluding Kururugi)-had much more lavish holdings then her. Old man Kirihara had at least three homes in Japan twice the size of her summer home. Though she expected it was more because he wanted the Japanese people and colonial government officials to buy into the lei that he sold out his pride to retain his wealth.

"I can imagine." Lelouch muttered as he reached for his own tea. "Anyway, why did you ask us to visit? The meeting doesn't start for another two hours." He was quite curious as he did have a meeting with Kyoto to discuss his latest stage of his plans. They had already been drawn up but since things could move outside of his control or predictions, he liked to have back-up plans and contingencies to ensure the overall objective is meet. Because of this, he never told one person the whole thing.

"Simply a women's curiosity. You made the impression on us the other day you know." Kaguya replied as she could still recall his awe struck she was when he revealed so much to the Six Houses. She never really thought a lot about space to find out so much was an eye opening experience. It was equally surprising to discover that they had a base on Mars, far outside both enemy observation or reach as Britannian may have had a space program but it wasn't as equipped or funded as the European one, which in of itself would take at least 3 mouth to get a probe to Mars.

"Oh he knows, he was quite pleased with himself." Reyla said as she pressed his side. She recalled how pleased he was with his performance. If she didn't know any better, she would say he was a skilled actor.

"Hmm-Hmm, daddy really likes to surprise people." Alice voiced in agreement as she could remember her daddy and uncle talking about it when she snuck out of bed to grab some sweets from the kitchen and walked by his study.

"Daddy?" Oh he knew that face, Kaguya had found some fresh ammo to use on him. "Oh I wasn't aware of this, when did he get a cutie like you?" She said as she reached out her hand so that the little angel could take it if she wished.

'She's gonna give me grey hairs before I hit 30!' Lelouch thought to himself as he resisted the urge to face-palm as he daughter took the elder women's hand in her own.

"He saved me from the bad guys, but they still got papa." Alice said as she teared up remembering how her father died the way he did. She would have crying if not for Lelouch placing a hand on her shoulder and a gentle kiss on the top of his head.

"It's okay to mourn Alice, we cry for our love ones because he cared for them and miss them." Reyla said as she took her daughter in her arms and gave her a hug. One she returned.

"Will I stop crying mama?" Alice asked as she looked up to the loving face of the women who took her in as her own without complaint and grace.

"Not really….we just get used to not having here," Lelouch said as he pointed to the empty seat to the side of them before he placed a hand on Alice's chest, over her heart. "But here, in our hearts."

'I never knew he was this good with kids. Oh the fun I can have.' Kaguya thought to herself as her own plans seemed much more feasible now that she could see he would be great with whatever children the two of them may have. She wouldn't let the fact he was already spoken for stop her. "Forgive me for bringing up bad memories. It was not my intention." She apologised to the little girl as she could somewhat sympathize with losing a father.

"All if forgiven, you are not the first to ask this." Reyla told her as many times when she and her daughter would go out(with the Japanese bodyguard her lover insisted she should have with her) she would often be asked that question by those brave enough to speak. Though more common was the whispers about her inhumanly pale skin.

"Yes, whenever we got out as a family, we get swarmed by young parents with their own kids." Reyla added in as she didn't know how many times they were invited to parent groups, though some of them did offer good benefits as they were thinking about joining one so that they could not only make friends with the parents of whatever children Alice may befriend but also be able to access better babysitters and etc.

"Apparently, I'm a shining example of good father, though from the example I had growing up, it's a pretty low bar." Lelouch muttered as he could only compare himself to the only father he ever knew and although thinking of him brought nothing but rage to his heart, he would forever take pride in the fact he was a much better father and husband.

"Most don't have such a person for a father you know. But let's move on to why I called you." Kaguya said as she poured herself more tea. "I wish to learn more."

"Learn?" Reyla asked her. That was pretty vague.

"Yes, about your travels, the worlds you seen. The people you've met. The things you've done." She said as she took a sip of tea thought her eyes still glowed with a sense of wonder and curiosity. "You're seating here with one of the first aliens to ever come to Earth and she's your wife and mother of your children. That's quite the story."

"Where we begin?" Reyla asked as she could only think about how much this world didn't know about the galaxy at large, how much they would turn it on its head with the knowledge they had.

"The force, what is it like?" The Japanese women asked, wanting to know it all. At her question, Lelouch placed his tea down and cupped his chin as his thought about how to describe such a thing while still doing it justice.

"That's…quite the question. The force….hmmm…If I were to describe it, I'll say it's like cloud, a mist that drifts from living creature to creature. It is the light in happiness in Alice's eyes, the love in my wife's gaze and the fires in my soul. Set in motions my currents and eddies. Swirling and Churning from the lowest depths of a planet to the deepest regions of space itself." Lelouch started as he got up from his seat and walked about the room, using his power to play around with objects outside of his physical reach.

"It's is the eye of the storm, the emotions….the passions of all living things turned into energy. As chaotic as a raging sea and as soothing as gentle chorus." He went on, seemingly on a role as his words captured the attention of his small audience. Her himself lost on the beauty of the garden beyond the window.

"It is the swell of the end of life, the promise of new blood and new territories. The call of new mysteries in the dark and the end of secrecies in the light." He finished as he generated his black lighting on one hand and pulled out one of his lightsabers in the other but not activating it.

"That sounds wonderful, no….it sounds," Kaguya said as she could only imagined being connected to such a force. "Magical."

"I feel that even my explanations doesn't do it justice. I've only known about my own connection to it a little over a decade ago. Many have spent their whole lives trying to give it a definition." Lelouch replied as he stop using the force and put his weapon away. There were still times when such knowledge weighted on him but he long since accepted that everyone was connected. It was only a shame that he wasn't the type of person that could speak with the dead as he had no way of knowing if his mother would even keep her own individuality in such a maelstrom of thoughts and emotions.

"One day," He said as he walked back to their seat and placed a hand on his daughter's head. "One day my sweet child, "I'll take you away from this planet and show you all the stars and worlds I can."

"Really?" Alice asked with stars in her eyes. What she was hearing should be impossible but she knew it wasn't, her daddy would never lie to her, never ever.

"Yes, we will. That's a promise and we keep our promises, don't we." Reyla asked as she hugged her daughter from behind as the girl happily bounced on her seat in excitement.

"Hmm-Hmm!" Alice answered as she couldn't wait taste moon cheese, all the other kids at school said the moon was made of the stuff.

"What about traveling through space. How does he feel to be able to take a Sunday flight to the Moon and be back within the hour?" Kaguya asked him as he must have made life much easier to know you could travel to the edge of their solar system in the same time it would take someone to fly to Berlin if not less.

"The Moon daddy?" Alice asked, she might go to the moon?

"I haven't actually been to the Moon but I've flown past it more than once." Lelouch answered as he had no real purpose to go there, maybe to screw with the Moon landing site that Britannia left in the 60s but beyond that, nothing.

"And to answer your question, it does make one feel smaller knowing that entire systems can be navigated and travelled within hours. But it does give you more clarity." Reyla answered her as she took the last sip of her tea before putting the cup down.

"Clarity." Kaguya asked her.

"That everyone wants to be happy. Even if they're on the other side of the known galaxy." She explained as they three soon fell into conversation involving entire stat systems, planets, galactic commence and security and the current war raging between the Sith and Republic and their Jedi allies.

* * *

(Later)

" **Are all present?** " Kirihara asked over the video call scree. Like him every member of Kyoto was using the same system and in their own homes or offices.

" **I believe we are, though Zero isn't using the regular method of communication**." Kubouin noted as Lelouch was on the same screen as Kaguya.

"I was invited as a guest by Sumeragi and our chat went on longer than we thought it would." Lelouch responded as he and Kaguya had to leave to make this call after putting Alice down for a nap. The girl tuckered herself out running around the place.

" **It matters little. We have other things to discuss**." Kirihara stated before they could devolve into senseless discussion.

"Indeed. It has come to my attention that a civil war is brewing in the Chinese Federation." Lelouch said as he eyed Kaguya out of the corner of his eyes, all she did in response was wink at him much to his irritation. "It also seems that Lady Kaguya was aware of this but neglected to inform us."

"It wasn't much of an issue, at present the forces loyal to the empress are few and far between. They can't pose a threat to the forces loyal to the Eunuchs at this point." Kaguya expertly dodged the blame as she answered the question, showcasing she wasn't some normal girl but a politically savvy women.

" **And if the Eunuchs found out about this fledgling rebellion?** " Munakata asked her, his beard hiding his own frown at not being informed of such.

"They'll crush it quite easily but that doesn't really effects our own efforts now does it?" She told them. She may see the Empress as a dear friend but she wasn't naïve enough to believe her loyalist had the chance against the eunuchs, not at this point at least. "They won't be able to find anything to connect them to us."

"No…but it does present a great opportunity for us." Lelouch said as it was true that they had no dealings with them, sure Kyoto brought most of their supplies in federation markets but that was well hidden by shell corporations and great use of hiding and moving around assets in different accounts.

" **What do you mean, Zero?** " Kirihara asked him, still making use of his title rather than name.

"As is stands right now, we don't have any official treaties with anyone nation on earth. Sure we have superior weaponry and craft capable of reaching space but that won't help us all that much of the other powers don't want us around, they'll simply overwhelm us with their industrial might and size of their militaries." He explained as he could already foresee how such a thing would go down. It would lead to nothing but meaningless death of millions.

" **Wars of such scale never benefit anyone, only serve to cripple both sides**." Yoshino added as he stroked his chin in thought.

"Exactly. What we need are allies…powerful ones at that. The federation is a world super-power and has both the population and industrial capability to give us that edge in keeping the other two at bay." He started. "I propose a two frontal plan. The first front is that we lead aid to the forces loyal to the empress so that once they oust the eunuchs and purge their influence from Federation affairs, we have an ally just across the sea." He started his proposal.

" **And the second part?** " Kirihara asked him, curious as to where his former student was taking this.

"The second part is that I use my own resources within the Black knights to ensure that Russia stays out of it at worst or leads aid at best as the federation will be quite weak. Weak enough that the Britannians may try and grab some of their territories for themselves." He finished as he already ran this by his staff and they all thought it would be beneficial for them to gain the two nations as allies as it give them access to markets and supplies they couldn't normally get to on their own. The added benefit was that it would make an second imperial invasion impossible as such a thing would brag the other two into conflict.

"But if they're in Russian aid in the country, it would deter them from a military solution as both countries wouldn't want a war." Kaguya started as she could see the boons in such an idea. "Not with all those imperial forces building up to invade Western Europe." That last bit was due to Black Knights spy satellites picking up imperial chatter about then possible future operation to invade Spain and the British Isles.

"Charles would never sign off on anything that may lead to two front war, not with the Black Knights still running around here in Area 11 where we're threatening his precious war machine's fuel supply." Lelouch said, he may have hated his father with every fibre of his being but he also knew knowledge was power, so he made it his business to find every scrap of information not only about Britannia and royals but more so on Charles himself. He wished to know how the man thought, how he acted, reacted and when he chose to leaves things to others…so that he was better able to tearing down all that he loved.

" **Yes, I can see the colonials first trying to stamp our rebellion out. While also keeping their naval presence in the Sea of Japan to keep the Federation from trying anything**." Munakata said as he had been on the news lately the sea trials for the Area 11 naval force was scheduled to begin soon.

" **An interesting play, but how would we counter Schneizel? He isn't the prime Minister for nothing. He has even lead the empire's armies on more than one occasion**." Kirihara asked Lelouch as they all knew that man was dangerous.

"That…I am unsure of. My brother has always been a genius but he has ruthless as he is charismatic. We would either need to give him a diversion or wait for one. I have an idea but I have yet to gain the approval of my own advisors." Lelouch answered as he knew that his brother was extremely skilled and not afraid to toss aside a corps or two if the gains made up for it. His own idea for dealing with him had met stiff resistance with his staff so it was benched for now.

"What's your idea, Zero?" Kaguya asked him, enjoying how she was seated next to the man she would one day call husband.

"My apologies but since I could not put in into motion without the approval of my own generals and advisors, I don't think it'll be a good idea to voice it." Lelouch informed them as to not get their hopes up foe a plan that may never see the light of day.

" **Fair enough** ," Kirihara said before he changed the subject. " **How goes the training of the JLF pilots?** "

"As well as I predicted. Once we broke through their supposed superiority for being the longest standing resistance group, we made some descent progress. About 195 JLF pilots have passed our pilot testing." Lelouch replied as he had read through the reports about how his instructors had to first break them out of their foolish sense of entitlement just for surviving this long before they could be taught anything.

" **And those how failed it?** " Yoshino inquired as he had a feeling it wasn't all good news.

"Not as high as I thought it would, around 147 last I checked. Some people are just not meant to become pilots." Lelouch said, and though Kyoto was surprised such a large number of people didn't make the cut, he never had high hopes for them in the first place so it didn't bother him all that much. Lockon actually thought more would fail.

" **I would have hoped more passed as it would mean the JLF only has around 312 pilots**." Munakata mused as this wasn't the outcome he was hoping for when he agreed to have all the JLF pilots properly trained.

"The Black Knights have a higher number I believe," Kaguya said as she turned to her guest. "Is that accurate?"

"Yes. As it stands, we have around 617 knightmare pilots." Lelouch confirmed, throwing out a number nearly twice the size of their closest rival of the JLF.

"So for this Chinese operation, we would need to lend substantial forces. We may need to throw most of the Black Knights into it which would mean failure would be our destruction." He went on as although he was for their plan for China, he wasn't dumb enough to think they would be of much help at the moment.

" **So it's fair to say that it won't happen for a while?** " Kaguya asked to confirm things for the group.

"Yes. Kaguya, could you pass the word that we will help them but only when we are in a position to do so?" Lelouch asked her as he had found out Rakshata wasn't given any means to communicate with their potential Chinese allies to avoid a suspicion placed on her.

"It can be arranged." The lady seated next to him replied as she then turned the meeting in another direction. They did have many things to bring up to the table after all.

* * *

 **28** **th** **October 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

'This is taking too long!' Reginald angrily thought to himself as he walked through the Tokyo Settlement. 'When the Hell is this so called Goddess of Victory going to act?' Clearly he wasn't in a good mood as it had been days since he last spoke with the viceroy and much to his frustration, she hadn't done anything about Zero, rather focusing on trying to uncover who he was under the mask.

'I need to do my own work on this, I won't let Zero get away with making a fool out of me!' He thought to himself, he had never been humiliated like that, never! But the question was how as even though his papers said he was with the OSI, he didn't have access to much of their stations or intelligence here. So he had to resort to his own methods, at the same time he found himself walking along the subway line near the border of the settlement and the ghetto. The passing train gave view to the old city which gave him an idea.

'And I know just the place to start looking for information.' He figured out as he was a spy, what better way to gather info then from the numbers themselves?

(Later)

'I would have thought it would be more…depressing.' Reginald thought to himself as he sneaked around the Shinjuku Ghetto. He may not look like the typical Britannian teen but he wasn't taking chances, he stuck to back alleys and the shadows. But one thing that did stick out to him was the fact that despite the clear signs of poverty and suffering, people here was genuinely happy and looked to be hard at work…cleaning the place up? That was new.

He looked around for another hour before he had some talk about the medical clinic needing more people to move boxes. This was surprising as he didn't know there was a clinic here so he followed the directions he overhead from one of the elevens to the centre of the place and there he saw something he wasn't expecting. 'What the…is that a…?' Right in front of him, there was an old building that looked to be under maintenance along with a whole group of elevens outside, some appearing to be waiting in line for medical attention-the others were off loading supplies off the back of a truck. These things weren't what grabbed his attention, what grabbed his attention was the symbols on the window for the makeshift clinic and the truck itself.

Both of which were of the Black Knights. The only difference being that under it was the international sigh of the Red Cross, marking both as non-combative medical staff and/or resources.

"When did they have time to… of course, it makes sense." He thought to himself as he knew that after Clovis' blunder here, Imperial presence in this particular ghetto was pretty low, sticking mostly to the perimeter. Cornelia was of the mind that the elevens should take care of themselves so as long as they didn't stir up trouble, she didn't care what they did. Clearly the Black Knights had used this wiggle room to get down and busy setting up a foothold here.

"So Zero winning the hearts and minds of the elevens with victories and caring for their needs is he? Crafty bastard." Reginald said to himself as he took out a small camera and started to take pictures of the scene, the people lining up, the truck, the building-all of it. V.V will want to know of this. 'This will only make them more loyal to that masked bastard, we need to kill him soon otherwise he'll be able to add thousands more to his raster.' He thought as he could already tell that rooting out these terrorists will be much harder than originally predicted.

"But first, where did you come from? All the roads leading into the ghetto have imperial checkpoints." He asked himself as he saw that the people off loading the truck stopped to talk, most likely there was an issue bit maybe the thing was empty. Which proved to true as he saw two guys jumped off the back and close up the doors, meaning he could follow it to where ever it came from. 'Looks like I just found my lead.'

* * *

(Meanwhile – With Euphemia)

As this was happening, Euphemia was being escorted towards the lower levels of the viceroy's palace by Alfred Dalton. It had been a busy week for them ever since she discovered the information about Zero. She still couldn't believe Andreas was able to pick up on that, kinda made her think he had a hand on her finding from beyond the grave. Now both Jeremiah and her sister had been hard at work trying to discover anything they could about Zero. Nonette had already all but ordered the school to send them any and all information they had on any students that of had in the last 20 years. Cornelia also used her pull as an imperial princess to request that the Viceroy of Area 5 allow them access to the financial records of any student they thought suspicious.

It had been slow going as so far, they gone through all the students for the past four years and despite finding out that some were in fact involved in some minor crimes here and there, nothing they had seen so far linked any of them to terrorism or any type of anti-government groups or ideals.

So lost in her own little world, she didn't hear Alfred calling her till she ran into him when he stopped to speak to her. On contact, she moved backyards and would have fallen if not for Alfred catching her.

"Your Highness?" He asked as he steadied her to ensure she didn't fall as she got her balance again.

"Um, Oh! My apologies, my mind was wondering wasn't it?" Euphemia apologised with a thankful smile as they kept on moving now that he had her attention.

"Not to worry, everyone had something to think about these days." Alfred said as he lead her down the hall now that she as paying attention again.

"But how goes the training?" She asked him, wishing to change the subject as she didn't wish to think about such things right now.

"The simulators have already been reprogramed to accommodate for the increased abilities of our new knightmares." Alfred said with a small smile as he could feel himself getting at piloting a 7th gen machine. It was taking more time than he or his brothers would have liked. "It won't be long before we can pay Zero and his eleven scum back for all the trouble they've been up to." He finished as he clenched his fist in righteous anger.

"I just hope that we can resolve things without bloodshed. Losing family and friends is never easy." Euphemia neither disagreed nor agreed with him, choosing to stay neutral with this topic, though Alfred didn't pick up on that.

"On that, I totally agree with you, your highness." He answered as they reached their final elevator to the training levels. As they rode the thing down, Euphemia thought about the evidence they had and how sooner or later they came up on a name that Cornelia wouldn't spare a second glance at.

Marianne was not only a native of the Duchy of Louisiana in Area 5 but also the Valedictorian of her graduating class at Imperial Knights academy. She could recall how whenever they gave the vi Britannia's a surprise visit. More often than not, they would catch Marianne during her combat practice session. She could also recall how Lelouch would pay almost religious attention to her, wanting to be just as strong as her one day.

'Lelouch….Nunnally…Is this your answer, is this the only path left for us?' She thought to herself as she exited the elevator and walked towards the viewing platform as Alfred went down to stairs to the training floor itself. And in front of her was the Glaston knights, training, prepping.

Prepping to fight this uprising started by those she loved.

"Your highness!" Unfortunately for her, her attention was drawn by one of the aides rushing onto the viewing platform. She didn't know them by name but she could recall his he usually looked calm, unlike now.

"Hmm? What is it?" She asked the man as she turned to face him.

"The Black Knights, they've attacked another site!" She reported to her, gaining her full attention.

"What!"

"It was an OSI safe-house from what we know, they didn't tell us much but the fire department Toyama reported that the entire building was ablaze by the time they got there. Residents also report hearing a rather fierce gun battle." He relayed to her as he read the news as it came in on his data-pad. The pictures coming in confirmed that there was a building that was burning right now.

"Oh no…" She said as she could only imagine how large the building was. The OSI didn't own whole buildings but mostly used floors of already existing ones, if the BK set one on fire, then there would most likely be innocents caught in between. "How many?"

"We don't know as of yet but the building was a five storey apartment complex, locals also reports that they think around 45 lived there but until the OSI gives us more information, that's all we have to go on." She was told, and not for the first time. She cursed the OSI needs for secrecy as chances are, they won't give them all the details.

"How did they even know about it? Not even the Viceroy is privy to going-ons of the OSI of their areas." She asked as not she nor did her sister even knew there was an OSI in Toyama to begin with. They knew there was one in the Tokyo Settlement but that was it.

"We don't know, your highness. Shall we send out own investigators as well?" He aide asked as he placed the data pad under his arm and stood straight as he addressed her.

"Yes, and also inform the Viceroy of my decision." She ordered him as she knew that she and her sister would need to discuss this new development soon.

"At once." The aide saluted her before he hurried away to carry out her orders. Leaving the sub-viceroy to her own thoughts.

"First regicide, second vigilantism, third open combat, fourth supply targeting and now attacking the OSI." She asked herself as she reached for the pendent she kept on her person at all times. It helped her remember simpler times, times where losing family wasn't a possibility to their childish minds. "How are you this able?"

* * *

 **And that it that, I've been writer's block for a while now and no matter how hard I try, I can't force myself to write a good chapter so rather than giving you 8k words of BS, this will have to hold you down till I can sort myself out.**


	27. The Revelation

**Alright, my writer's blocked cleared the other day and I've been able to get those creative juices flowing. I been having this chapter planned for a while now and I hope that it'll be over 9.5k words. I also just happened to finish S3 of Attack of Titan and by God, it was wonderful! That was how you kill off characters and win the battle! Shame bout the beast Titan, that son of a bitch can't just take him lumps like a man and die, can he?**

 **Tf330129: I will, as I've said in the past. This story will have a sequel once I've finished it.**

 **Vein Bloodborne: I try since I always try and look at the flow of things in the story, I never did like stories that just rushed elements of itself for plot convenience.**

 **Blaze1992: If you are referring to me-that hurts. If you are referring to the antagonists, oh yes they will, they will all feel the flames.**

 **Murraymint835: I wasn't shooting down your proposal as he just needs more than just romantic feelings for his love life as he was raised in an environment where political marriages are common and completely normal. Hell, I don't even think he was against his brother Odysseus marrying Tianzi for the more ethical reasons such as the huge gap in age(since she was like what, 14?) but against it because it negatively affected him. I say this was his father was 24 when Marianne was born(I'm surprised that neither of his elder siblings didn't make their bastard of a father a grandpa in cannon), we know she gave birth when she was 20 meaning that they must have had some sort of relationship prior to this.**

* * *

 **Chapter 27: The Revelation**

 **30** **th** **October 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Somewhere on the North American East coast:**

"Reginald, this had better be important." V.V said over the phone as he sat on a private train heading somewhere unknown.

" **Yes master, I can assure you that it is**." Reginald said over the phone as he stood in his apartment safe-house in the Tokyo Settlement.

"Well spit it out." V.V told him, rather impatient with this farce of an operation. Honestly, he was used to having his mission completed within days.

" **Sir, while on my assignment here in Area 11, I opted to do some intelligence gathering in the ghettos**." Reginald reported but he found himself cut off.

"I already know this, you filed your report yesterday, unless you have something of substance-" V.V told him as he had already read through it. It was rare of terrorist to care for more than fighting. It did tell them that Zero and the Black Knights are more resources than originally believed.

" **Yes sir, I do. I swear it!** " Reginald cut in, pleading as he knew that his life may very well be on the line.

"If what you have for me isn't good, you regret interrupting me." V.V warned him with a displeased frown on his rather young face.

" **Sir, I was able to find out that the Black Knights are holding some kind of rally in three days' time**." He heard his agent report to him as he looked out the window of the luxury cabin he was seated in. the snow was already setting in here.

"A rally?" V.V asked him. Now that wasn't something you hear every day.

" **Yes, some of the elevens in the ghetto were taking about it but they spotted me before I could get more details. I do know that it'll be held in the Saitama Ghetto**." Reginald replied as he had come into that juicy nugget hours before, he would have gotten more if he wasn't made. Turns out the ghettos are pretty xenophobic of white people.

"Interesting, so Zero thinks he can rally the numbers to his cause, does he?" V.V thought to himself aloud as this was a new development. If they could use this to their advantage. "Can my niece deploy anything there?"

" **I'm afraid not. Saitama is away from most Britannians sites so the numbers would be sure to spot them coming a mile away. The ghetto is also a lot like Shinjuku, meaning Zero would have a somewhat easy time defending it**." Reginald replied as he had a feeling that was the reason it was chosen. Far enough away to be relatively safe but close enough to Tokyo to still be considered a thump to the nose of the colonial government.

"Airstrike?" V.V asked as he knew that his niece had been ordering more air patrols to make up for their ground forces' blunders and had even requested an additional 35 gunships from area 10.

" **That would take some time as I don't know how to fly so I'll need to get someone else to do it for me. It would be more favourable to ask the viceroy to send one in**." Reginald replied, disappointed that he never learned how to fly as it would be a good skill to have right now. V.V was about to hang up and be done with this conversation when a thought came to mind which caused him to freeze for a second to consider it.

"On second though….delay that last order." V.V ordered.

" **Master?** "

"Zero might not even show up, not if he knows we can just bomb him from above." He reasoned as he didn't want to show their hand just yet. "I want you to sneak in and find out what you can. The more we know about this masked fool, the better. Oh and, don't tell Cornelia, she doesn't have the patience for these kinds of things." He finished his command as he figured that they will need to learn as much as possible about this unknown immortal. If things go well for them, they may even be capable of capturing him, then they won't need that pizza loving witch anymore.

" **Yes master, is there anything else?** " Reginald asked his master.

"Nothing, just be on the look-out." He replied before he hung up the call and gave the phone back to his assistant who had been standing next to his seat this whole time. "Zero, you are certainly shaping up to be quite the pain in my side but," He said to himself, to quiet for the assistant to hear as he voiced his thoughts.

"No-one will get in the way of Charles and my dream. No-one." He finished as he felt his grip on the seat tightened in anger at this continued annoyance on the other side of the pacific. "Perhaps I should inform Charles of this, he may have a plan of action."

* * *

 **31** **st** **October 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/ Sol-#**

 **Area 11(Japan)**

 **Tokyo Settlement**

"We need to talk." Suzaku said as he along with Lelouch and Nunnally all but barged into C.C. room. The girl herself was still in her nightwear while he ate some pizza.

"About what?" She asked, not really caring that they were seeing more skin then usually, though it brought some satisfaction to her when she could pick up the two males blush a bit and look away.

"How about…V.V." Lelouch said, the name surprising her though she did her best to hide it. How they know about him? "So you do know of this character." Apparently she wasn't good enough to hide that shock.

"It is a name I've heard before." He answered without giving them a thing. Something that was angering the dark haired rebel.

"Don't play games because I am in no mood for them. Why didn't you tell us about them?" Lelouch got down to the point of the conversation, though he was a couple hundred years too early if he thought he could intimidate her.

"It never came up." C.C answered as she took another bite.

"Why you litt-!" Lelouch started but he found himself held back by his sister who knew he was going to try something drastic.

"Enough! Getting angry will solve nothing. But he does have a point, who keep them secret? Are you working for them?" Suzaku said as he turned to her and asked the question, calmer than his friend who Nunnally let go of when it looked like he wasn't going to try something.

"No." C.C responded, no sense in them thinking she was working against them. She rather liked the house and didn't want to go back to a prison cell anytime soon.

"Are you going to give us more than that? You do owe us for saving your ass in Shinjuku." Nunnally asked her, hoping that she could make it sound more like a deal where there is reward and sacrifice.

"I never asked to be helped, girl." Now that was a low blow. How was she to know that Clovis was more competent then she was lead to believe? His Code-R research plants had some serious security.

"And yet, who was the one in a restraint jacket, starved for oxygen?" Suzaku joked, getting a glare from the witch in return. "Cut the act, we have a problem and we'll like to get on top of it as soon as possible."

"And this is my problem….why?" C.C asked him, not at all invested in this conversation.

"Because we lost good people to this V.V, agents. Good folk that are either dead for mentally scarred for life." Lelouch replied, mildly surprising the green haired women as she would have thought he would be much colder, like his parents. "It would help us stop that from happening again if you cooperate."

'Hmmmm….well it's not like it affects me if I do talk so why not.' C.C thought to herself as she pondered before she spoke up. "V.V, like myself can give people something called geass. Mental abilities that grants the users abilities many could never hope to match."

"Geass? That sounds Celtic. Is that the only name for it?" Lelouch asked, his Celtic was weak but he did pick up a few things studying for his last language test.

"As far as I know, yes. I've never encountered someone used another name for it." C.C said as there was a time when she asked herself the same question but it was always that one term, well that or devil's magic. Good thing she left Salem the first sign of trouble, being burned to death at the stake was one of the worst ways to go.

"Good thing it's mental." Suzaku muttered to himself.

"Why is that?" Nunnally asked him. This was a threat and they were taught to never look down on a potential foe.

"Because Lelouch over here," He pointed to the man in question. "Proved that force sensitive people can resist the effects, and since they can't affect the physical like we can, we have the edge." He finished as he recalled how pissed off he was when he found out the risk he took. There were days when he wondered just who was the reckless idiot between them.

"I recall stating that it might have something to do with the fact we have been extensively trained to resist mind based attacks but yes, being connected to the force as we are would be the obvious primary reason." Lelouch corrected, unknowingly giving C.C information she could pass on to Marianne….when she felt like it.

'So Geass doesn't work all that well, there goes Charlie's plans to bring them to his side anytime soon.' She thought to herself as she found herself more and more interested in whatever these three could do as it went against everything she thought was possible.

"I'm guessing that you can do more than give out power like candy." Suzaku asked with a risen brow.

"Not much else, you all already know about the being very hard to kill part." That was a no brainer as they all knew she should have been dead long before they met. "But there is one thing you should be aware of."

"And what's that? That we have 6 months to live?" He joked.

"That V.V is Emperor Charles' closest ally. If you been hit once, you can be sure it won't be the last." He told them as she had never known V.V to simple let something go, the death of Marianne was proof of that.

"We already figured that part out, though we didn't know how close the two were." Lelouch told her as their new dead and buried prisoner had already revealed that much.

"We also know that he leads some kind of secret spy/assassination network. You know anything about that?" Suzaku asked her. But before she could give them some BS, Nunnally spoke up with those damn puppy dog eyes her mother always complained about.

"Please C.C." "Oh dammit, now she knew what her former contractor was talking about.

'Oh, what the hell.' She reasoned with herself as she gave them something for free. "I can't tell you much, I was once the leader of this network but is stepped down about 10 years ago, so anything I know would be outdated by now. All I can tell you that they have hundreds of agents, maybe a couple thousand by now."

"Great, just what we need. A bunch of geass powered brats running around, messing with our plans." Lelouch said as he held the bridge of his nose in irritation. He thought he wouldn't have to deal with the Nightsisters so long as he stayed out of their region of space, clearly he was wrong.

"But how are we going to tackle this?" Suzaku asked the other two as he could think of a few ways to go about this.

.

.

.

"Lelouch?" Nunnally asked as he being unusually quiet as he thought about this.

"Draw them out into the open of course, if these agents work best in the shadows, we'll drag them into the light and strike them down." He finally answered with a small but cruel looking smile. His mind always racing with all the ways they'll crush this little organisation and take everything of value.

* * *

 **2** **nd** **November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11(Japan):**

 **Saitama Ghetto:**

'This is it, from what I was able to gather, this is the spot of the big rally.' Reginald thought to himself as he watched from the shadows as elevens in droves into the old Saitama Super Arena. Night had long since fallen and along with thee bitter cold, made this a night he would rather be warm, but his master's word was law and he would obey. "Fits just fine since he's also doomed to fail. But why Saitama?" He asked himself as he stood there, wearing the best old winter clothing he had so he wouldn't stick out too much.

'Of course, they have armed guards, don't want the authorities busting in on them, gotta find another way in.' He observed as he saw 4 guards at the main entrance and could make out another 7 inside through the windows. So he crept along, avoiding both the light from the recently brought in floodlights. He soon reached the other side of the place and was in for a pleasant surprise when he spotted something he wasn't expecting.

'Holy-, are those elevens armed with SAMs? No wonder they were arrogant enough to use this place, clear sky-line for easy targeting and enough ordnance to keep an airstrike at bay.' He observed as he was able to make out not just anti-air vehicles but also regular troopers walking around with SAMs on their backs.

"Okay, I count 11 heavy machine guns on the upper floors, 4 of what looks to be anti-air missile vehicles and 2 guidance vehicles. Combine that with the knightmares all over the place and it's locked pretty tight." He said to himself as he took out his camera to take as much pictures as he could of the area. It also registered in his mind that if they bothered to bring in this much hardware, then Zero must be present.

"There." He said as he spotted in his way into the place. 'A window.' Once the coast was clear, he quickly climbed the three floors to get to it and silently opened it and climbed right on in. he was also careful to close the window again just in case. He walked about for a bit, following the noise of the elevens before he came to the arena itself and in the seats and standing in the many halls were more elevens then he had seen in on place before.

'Now just have to blend in with the crowd, the lighting is shit so as long as I don't pull anything stupid, no-one should notice I'm not an eleven.' He concluded as he walked about like he belonged. He avoided conversation as he may have known the language but unlike Rolo, he couldn't fake an accent.

'Damn, there are a lot of elevens here. At least seven…maybe eight thousand at least. Are they all residents of the ghetto? If so, then the viceroy is going to have a field day tomorrow arresting the lot of them.' He thought to himself as he found an empty seat neat the front and sat down.

"You excited for this?" The guy next to him asked, clearly he was happy to be here going from the tone along, though he could make out the smile on his face.

"Hmmm…oh yeah but I don't really know what's it all about. My stupid friends dragged me here and ditched me." Reginald responded as he pulled down on his hat to hide more of his face out of habit.

"Well that happens, friends can be a pain sometimes. Anyway, no-one knows what this is about." He answered with a laugh.

"Is that so? So many people showed up even without knowing the why?" Reginald asked, now that was interesting. So he didn't miss out on info since no-one knew.

"Well Zero and the Black Knights give us hope for freedom, I know I'll throw my lot in with them if I was younger!" His new source of information replied as he patted his heavy looking gut. Reginald couldn't see all that well but he could see that this man had long since passed the prime of his life.

"How many people are even here? It's too dark to see but I count like seven thousand." Reginald asked to try and gather as much info as he could. The laugher the man responded with was unexpected.

"No way my friend, there are much more than that. From what I hear around the place, there are at least eighteen thousand here." He informed him, not being able to see the shocked look on Reginald's face.

"Eighteen thousand! Shit, I didn't know he had that many followers." He let out by mistake as he never would have thought so many would gather from one ghetto alone.

"Oh he has much more, these are just the folks from around the neighbourhood ghetto. In Japan as a whole, he probably has in the hundreds of thousands." Lucky for him, the man didn't catch his little slip-up and just chalked it up to not being in the know. They would have continued their conversation but then all, the light died down-bathing the place in darkness. Reginald would have reached for the gun he had with him if not for the lights in the middle of the stage set up in the middle of the field coming to life.

" **Please welcome, your hero. Your champion, our saviour!** " An announcer said as a platform rose from the middle of the stage. On it, was his prime target along with several others. " **Zero!** " With the announcement of his presence, the crowd applauded and cheered for him as he walked to the edge of the stage, where a microphone had been placed.

'So the big boss actually showed up? He must think we can't touch him, he even brought along more masked bastards, they must be important.' Reginald was quick to notice that along with Zero, was two others in masks and costumes, though one looked more like a militaristic concept while the other looked to be something akin to knight's armour meets ballistic plating.

" **Good evening, people of the world**." The voice of the most wanted man in the empire rung out over the crowd, strong and confident as he took hold of the microphone. But what Reginald didn't know was that, there were over a dozen different cameras broadcasting this through hacked TV and internet channels to the world.

* * *

(Meanwhile – with Milly)

"Millicent! Get down here!" Rivalz yelled towards the stairs as he sat on the couch in their shared living room.

"Wha?- Where's the fire Rivalz?" Milly asked as she came down the stairs, hastily putting on a bathrobe as her wet hair clung to her face. She had rushed out of her relaxing bath when she heard Rivalz call her…using her full name which meant it was serious.

"It's Zero, he's on the TV again!" Rivalz told her as he got up and pushed her towards the couch where he grabbed the remote.

"He's what?!" Milly asked as Rivalz turned the volume up before he crash into the couch as well.

"I was watching the weather updates and the channel went to static before it cut to him. Looks like he's high jacked the TV signals again." Rival informed her before they heard Zero speak once more.

" **It brings me great pleasure to see so many of you here, in support of such a noble endeavour. I'm sure they are many others that wish to be here but fear repercussion from our colonial** _ **masters**_ **. But do not fear, the day where they will fear us will come**." Zero said as he looked over the crowd of people who were cheering for him like a famous celebrity.

'Lelouch, what in the hell is going on here?' Milly asked herself as she had a feeling this would be worse for them than Zero's debut appearance.

* * *

(With Cornelia)

"How the hell did he bypass our television signal encryptions?" Cornelia demanded of her staff as she along with Guilford, Euphemia and Nonette watched this broadcast that had interrupted regular programming on almost every channel.

"We are working on that, your highness but it will take some time before we can lock him out again." One of the technicians reported as many more tirelessly worked on trying to take back control of the airwaves.

" **As many of you must be wondering, what is this rally about? Is Zero merely posturing like a politician? Does he like the camera time?** " Zero asked these question as he took hold of the mic and started to walk across the stage from one side to the other. " **But I am here to give you the answer. For it is now that I reveal a secret about myself and my true goals. I only ask that you all wait for me to finish before you cast your judgement. Can I hope that you will do so?** " Zero asked the crowd, catching their interest and confusion but just like Cornelia expected, no-one voiced objections to Zero.

'What secret?' Cornelia asked herself.

"You have any idea what he's talking about?" Euphemia asked Guilford, before a terrible pit in her stomach came to be.

"No but I have a bad feeling about this." Nonette said, pissed that she wasn't there with her new knightmare to put an end to all this.

" **The secret I have to share with you and the rest of the world is that you are all wrong about me. I am no number as classified by our colonial masters. In summary….I am not Japanese!** " Zero announced to the entire world, shocking everyone that the rebel leader of the Japanese resistance, wasn't Japanese himself?!

"What!" Cornelia yelled as she nearly stood up. They had already figured out he was no number but what was the point of the damned mask if he was going to drop hints like that!

"Why would he say that now?" Nonette asked herself, one of their plans was to reveal that they suspected he wasn't Japanese to throw off his support base, but clearly he had seen such a thing happening and countered their move before they even made it.

" **The man I am behind this mask, is in fact Britannian**." At this reveal, the crowd present at the rally started to grow anxious from that last one. Their experiences with Britannians over the last decade making them fearful and resentful of their leader. But most likely foreseeing such an outcome, Zero rose both hands up and spoke once more, to try and calm them down. " **Now before you all start something rather unpleasant. I would like some time to speak about this, if you'll let me**." Zero asked them, sounding both patient and seeking to them. The crowd for the most part calmed down to give him this chance as he had done many things for the Japanese, so they would give him the opportunity to speak.

'He's controlling the flow of the whole damn thing! There's no way there's someone there brave or stupid to act against him.' Nonette thought to herself as she realised what was happening. She had spent enough time in Pendragon and seen Schneizel work too many times to not notice when a person was controlling a crowd like some puppet-master.

" **It is true that both my mother and father are of Britannian heritage, it is also a fact that I was born into quite the well-off family where I believed I was cherished and loved**." Zero told the crowd, and the world.

* * *

(With Charles and Marianne)

"That's one way to describe the royal family. Might be an understatement but it's no lie." Marianne, in the body of Anya stated as she watched the broadcast along with Charles in his personal study.

" **But I was raised to believe nothing but lies. I was told time and time again about how our people and nation was the best in the world, that our expansion was merely our way of sharing our prosperity**." Zero relayed to them, giving a heavily edited version of his childhood as to not give away too much information while mixing in his own massage to the world. It was good to not have to use a single lie, he was just leaving out details. " **Looking back on it now, I am ashamed that such deceit ever fooled me**." He spat out as he turned his head to the side, as he if he really wanted to spit. At this point, both the emperor and his 'deceased' wife paid closer attention.

" **The so called** _ **Holy**_ **Britannian Empire has grown arrogant in its belief that it is the best nation to ever exist, greedy for looking upon the riches of other lands and peoples with envy and desire, cruel in its treatment is our fellow man and corrupt as those who not just allow this but incite such evils go unpunished and profit from it all**." Zero said as he spoke each offense with more and more conviction, captivating both the crowd watching on site and many watching this at home and abroad.

" **I am not a patriot but any normal means for there is no one country that I swore allegiance but rather, I sore myself to a set of ideals**." Zero said to them, his beliefs already public knowledge from his first time on TV.

"So, this is his plan. Reveal enough to make yourself more likeable while keeping your true aces to your chest?" Charles asked, slightly impressed with his errant son, though he'll have to do something better to surprise him. Something that he didn't know was coming.

* * *

(With C.C)

" **We of the Black Knights do not make war for the sake of war, for the sake of destruction. We do not seek to slaughter everyday Britannian citizens as your government would want you to believe but we wish to wage war against those responsible for the state of the world**." Zero stated as he rose his hand and gestured to not just those with him on stage but also the area itself, as the crowd knew he had people all over the place.

" **We wage our righteous war against the captains of industry, the nobility and most of all, the true evil behind this madness. The Britannian Royal family!** " Zero roared to the crowd, who was silenced by the intensity of his words.

"So, you finally come out about your hatred? Should have known you would make it grand." C.C said to herself as she watched this broadcast with little Alice. She normally didn't involve herself with children but the young girl was nothing if not persistent. It also helped that Nagata was present as a bodyguard.

" **We long to destroy these elements for forgetting their own humble roots**." Zero went on as he walked from one edge of the stage to the other, looking into the crowd and catching the gazes of more than a few people.

" **For you see, over 2000 years ago, Japan and Britannia were not so different. For Britannia was small island nation off mainland Europe. Cut off but satisfied with what they had**." And then he started in impromptu history lesson for some reason.

* * *

(With the Fenette's)

" **Like Japan, this small nation was attacked by a brutal invading power we all remember as the mighty Roman Empire. The romans wished to take their lands and freedoms to further their own ambitions, not caring for what destruction and bloodshed they would have to unleash upon their smaller and weaker foe**." He said to them, his account of history and the reason for it clicking in the minds of thousands.

"Why is he bringing up ancient history?" Shirley's mother asked as the two sat in a restaurant in the settlement. They happened to be a TV that they and the rest of the patrons and staff used to watch.

"Because….because he wants to gain the support of regular Britannians." Shirley realised as her eyes widen in surprise at this tactic.

" **But to the surprise of the Romans, who had for years gone unopposed, the people of this small island didn't give up so easy. No, for they banded together under a man I've have come to respect. Alwin I, under his leadership and skills, he brought the people together and defeated the Romans before driving them from their shores**." Zero announced to the crowd, who were now realizing as a whole what he was doing.

* * *

(With the A.S.E.E.C)

" **However, I can only imagine that he must be rolling in his grave in the disappointment he must feel in his grave as the country and nation he fought for had become far worse than Rome could ever hope to be**." Zero head dropped in….sadness at this last bit, though they couldn't tell if he really meant it or it was an act.

"Well when he puts it like that, I can see our first ruler viewing things like that." Lloyd said as he worked on some data they were able to collect off Rai from his earlier training runs.

"Lloyd!" Cecile yelled at his brazen lack of tact. They were still employed by the crown!

"What? It's true isn't it?" Lloyd asked her, not seeing a problem with his words as he just shrugged his shoulders and got back to work.

"It's obvious that he's trying to paint the government as the villains." Cecile said as he Rai kept quiet as he watched this whole go down.

"Well they didn't make it too hard, now did they?" Lloyd shot back with his regular smirk as the light shined off his glasses.

" **It is for this reason that I cannot and will not work with the imperial government, I refuse to lower myself as to work with monsters and fools.** " Oh-oh, Lloyd had a pretty good feeling that his relatives back home would take offense to that one, though he himself saw no issue with it. It was true, wasn't it? " **It is also for that same reason that our prisoners must be trialled for their crimes**." Zero surprised them yet again.

* * *

(Back in Saitama)

"Prisoners? Trial?" The person seated next to Reginald asked.

'Is that what this is? A public trial?' Reginald asked himself as they all saw a large group of people

" **Why don't we all give a warm welcome to our prisoners? Captured during our successful attack on the Imperial air base during Cornelia's** _ **failed**_ **attempt to stamp out the will of the people**." Zero announced as their prisoners from their raid on the air-base in Narita were harshly escorted onto the stage, some of which having to be hit over the head with a rifle but to get them moving. As it had been some time since their capture, they were not wearing their uniforms or gear but rather a bland black and white stripped prison uniform.

" **Not much to look at but these men and women have already been positively identified and my men have worked to gather the evidence against them. I won't say who did what since they all know their sins but the crimes committed by the people we have standing before us includes but is unfortunately not limited to: Unfair and illegal taxation, looting of the dead, desecrating burial sites for their own gains or amusements, sexual assault in the form of 'favours' and** ," Her Zero turned to face them, the majority shaking in their cheap shoes as both the masked terrorist and crowd glared at them. " **Killing anyone eleven who dared to fight back**."

"The bastards." Reginald's new info source grunted out in anger as the rest of the crowd lost it.

"How dare you!"

"Burn in hell!"

"Your nothing but monsters, you colonials!" This one came a women that sounded to be quite elderly.

"I hope you suffer for what you did!"

"Shut up, you damned elevens!" It was a fair chance someone would do it but Zero didn't think one of the prisoners would be this stupid. And it was obvious that the rest wanted to live as they immediately tried to distance themselves from him.

'Is he an idiot? They all want your blood and you think it's a good time to say that?' Reginald thought to himself as he tried to think of ways to get them out of this,

" **Now, unlike the guilty standing before us, we aren't animals. We, or rather I, shall give them a chance to live**." Zero announced to the crowd and world, shocking all except the Black Knights troops present who must have already been informed.

"To live? Is he insane?" Someone behind asked and he was attempted to agree. What purpose would this act of mercy do?

'I gotta agree with you there, if this is a public execution, why left some live?" Reginald thought to himself as he tried to make sense of this logic that Zero was using.

" **I shall grant each and every one of them a trial by combat. If they win, they may walk free but if they lose, they die where they stand**." At this, the crowd couldn't hold back their resentment of such a decision. They howled and screamed at Zero, telling him to give them the death they all deserved, to make them suffer for what they had done. In response to this, the man in question chose to reason with them, not order like one would expect of someone with the power he had.

" **People, people please. I understand your frustration, your anger! But we must show these animals that we are the better folk and that we will stand by the code of law and give our fellow man a chance. Something that they never gave to the people they used and abused**." Zero said to try and calm down the masses, if Reginald wasn't so damned pissed with him, he would be impressed by how quickly he was able to rein in the elevens who were now not so vocal about wanting them dead.

" **So, the question remains**." Zero started as he turned to face the soon to be judged. His faceless appearance appearing much more intimidating than normal to them as some even whimpered like scared pups. " **How among you wants to live the most?** "

.

.

.

"I'll do it. I'll kill any eleven that thinks I would lose." The idiot from before said as he stepped out from the group. In the face of his bravery, Zero only chuckled as if it were an amusing joke.

" **So full of arrogance, Mr. Jeremy Spacer. But that should be expected then your crimes were stealing what wasn't yours. But you are mistaken. I never said you would fight a number, or a Japanese**." Zero mused as he stepped forward, one of the guards kicking the guy in the back so that he would move forward as well to meet their masked leader. " **For your life, you will have to best…me**."

* * *

(With Cornelia)

"That bastard!" Nonette screamed as she pounded her hand into the table.

"Nonette?" Euphemia asked as her outburst come from out of no-where and as worrying to the rest of the room.

"He doesn't intend for any of them to live, if they have to fight him…they don't have chance." Nonette explained to them as she hadn't gone a night without seeing their encounter over and over, some more violent and bloody then others but she would never forget what she had seen Zero do.

"This is all for show, he's giving a death sentence dressed like a mercy." Guilford stated as he came to the same conclusion. He was going to mask it to it would only increase his popularity with the people.

"Can we trace where they are?" Cornelia asked once more, her patience near its end.

"We can't mam, the signal is being bounced around over 30 different places both in Area 11 and the Chinese Federation." One technician reported as she tried to find the source of the signal only to be met with more false fronts or firewalls.

* * *

(In Saitama)

"You?" The captured soldier asked, though whether it was out of arrogance, confusion, fear or some combination of the three was unknown.

" **Yes, me. Why would I make someone else do what I'm more than capable of accomplishing myself?** " Zero asked him, taunting him as he pulled out one of his signature weapons and toss it to him. " **I'll even give you something to help you**." He finished as the man was able to catch the offending item and stare at it in confusion.

"The hell is this?" He asked him as he looked down the tube on one end of it, it didn't like a regular gun, he couldn't see anything like a handle, was the curve the handle?

" **I wouldn't do that if I was you, as for what it is. It's a lightsaber**." Zero instructed him as he pulled out another one and activated it, releasing the beautiful amethyst blade for all to see. " **An elegant weapon of a more civilised time**." He finished as he twirled his own around the wrist, captivating all those watching with this unheard piece of technology, all but a few who had known about or had seen it before.

'It's the weapon!' Reginald thought to himself as he remembered how Zero used it to slash right through their guns like it was nothing. He had two of them?!

" **What's the matter, there is a switch to turn the blade one, you know. Or are you too simple minded for notice?** " Zero mocked him as some of the guards on stage laughed at him, who in response to this mockery, found a boon when he was able to see the switch and activate the blade.

"Shut up you damn traitor!" He yelled as he took a standard fencing stance as the blade didn't feel too heavy, in fact it felt as light as a dagger.

" **Very well, we'll let our blades do the talking**." Zero agreed with him as he took a simple but effective form II stance, holding his blade out with his free hand behind his back.

"Die!" Clearly this offended his opponent as he dashed towards him and thrust his blade towards his chest.

" **[sigh] No form** ," Zero sounded disappointed as he easily blocked the blow and countered with a light slash at his cloths, cutting into his right sleeve. " **No skill**." He once more dodged another clumsy attack and kneed him in the gut, forcing the air from his lungs. " **Are you sure, you've used a blade before?** " His response to this mockery was going on the offensive again, not that would help him anyway.

" **No matter** ," Zero started as he stood still and waited for the right moment. Which came when his target was close enough for him to not only counter his slash, but disarm him of the weapon by cutting off the hand holding it. " **You're already dead**." He finished as he twirled his blade into a reverse grip, pulled the retreating the stunned man closer by his shirt and with one swift backhanded slash, cut right across his chest, ending the fight.

"What…?" He choked out as ruined heart gave one last beat as he fell to his knees and a moment later, he collapse on his face. The wounds not leaking blade due to the blade cauterising them.

" **Judgment has fallen on you head. Burn in hell you filth**." Zero said as the next person was kicked out onto the stage as the body was dragged off. Unlike the first one, he was pleading for his life as he tried to back away but found himself trapped, so he weakly took the offered weapon and tried to last as long as he could.

* * *

(With Schneizel and Kannon)

"Kannon, what do you make of this?" Schneizel asked his faithful manservant and assistant. The two of them had been travelling across the country on board his personal flagship, the Avalon when they intercepted this transmission. It may have been early morning in the Americas but Zero had proved to be worth the early wake up.

"This is an attack your highness. One aimed at the very foundation of the empire." Kannon summarised. "Public executions have always been used as a way of discouraging a targeted group of people. Zero is clearly targeted us, more specifically, the nobility." He finished as he could only imagine that Zero was invoking similar conditions to the times of revolution in France in the modern day.

"Yes, that was my thought as well. This Zero is an expert at going after weak points. The nobility won't really worry about this other than wanting him dead, the common folk on the other hand…" Schneizel was of the same thought there and he could see the genius of it. If Zero can get far enough with his plans, then it won't matter if they defeat him, the damage would have been done and the empire could very well collapse under its own weight. This was made apparent when Zero made a comment about how the nobles would sooner send millions of commoners to die then admit defeat after the son of a baron pleaded for his life by trying to offer money and lands before he found his head cut off.

"This could also be an attack against the military. He is executing POWs on live television and they don't even know where he is." Kannon suggested as Cornelia could be quite the temperamental one when pushed like this, and what better way to push her buttons then killing those under her command in this giant middle finger fashion?

"Cornelia will not take kindly to that I can imagine. Has she requested additional aid?" Schneizel asked as he knew his sister better than anyone. And knowing her, she would want a massive man-hunt for this.

"Yes sir. Shall I have them fast tracked?" Kannon asked as he looked it up on his data pad and saw she did request additional troops and supplies.

"Do so, in fact," Schneizel started before he paused as a thought came to mind. "Through in an additional 100 knightmares with their pilots. After this, I can see the Black Knights swelling with new recruits."

"The situation in Area 11 is turning volatile. If her highness can't bring the heat down," Kanon said to himself, though his prince could still hear him.

"We will have a full blown rebellion on our hands. And that it not even considering that the Chinese will no doubt want a piece of the cake." Honestly, he was rather vexed with the Eunuchs, if only they had agreed to the marriage proposal he put up two years back but those 'men' were incredible greedy and wanted more than he could reasonable give. "A proxy war between ourselves of the federation, which could easily turn into a direct conflict."

"Still, Zero had given us many clues to work with." Kanon tried to see some good from this situation, though his prince shot that down.

"Yes but that must be part of the plan. He gave up details that were no longer on a need-to-know basis. We know what he wants us to know." Schneizel said as he could only imagine that Zero didn't think this was important enough to hide, which speaks to a character where he was willing to sacrifice if it meant victory. "Speaking of knowing, have you found out why our satellites have been malfunctioning?" He asked as it had been an issue for a couple mouths now, it wasn't too major but he would like to solve the issue before it become major.

"Our scientist believe that there is an issue with the components themselves, other than that. We have found no other cause of this." Kanon reported as NASA hadn't found anything too serious when they sent up a team to investigate.

"If this keeps up, we'll have to suspend out spring offensive on the EU. It would be foolish to set another house on fire when one is brewing in our own backyards." Schneizel sighed as he knew his father would be less than pleased but even he would see that it was a necessary move. "Organise a teleconference between Earl Asplund and myself. If there is one thing that this developing insurrection as shown us, is that our regular knightmares are not up to par. We need more 7th Gen machines."

"It shall be done. I'll see if I can't organise one for tomorrow afternoon." Kanon answered with a small frown as he could never get over how flippant his fellow earl was. It always aggravated him how Lloyd acted around his prince.

"Very good, Kannon. That is all." Schneizel ordered as Kanon bowed to him before taking his leave the Prime Minister's study, leaving his prince to think about the situation they found themselves in.

'Cornelia, you may more on your plate then you can deal with.' He thought to himself as he picked up the white queen off his chess board and gazed at it, thinking of how he will tackle this new challenge.

* * *

(Back in Japan – With Milly)

"He…he killed them all…so easily…." Rivalz got out as he could nothing but watch as one after the other was slaughtered like pigs.

"He is clearly a master swordsmen. There was never a chance they'll win." Milly said as she could see this was all planned. And the worst part was that it was still 'fair' it wasn't like they didn't have the chance to learn how to fight with a sword, if was just who would pick up such an ancient skill in the first place.

"He…so this was a death sentence for the lot of them from the very beginning." Rivalz said aloud, finally accepting the situation for what it was. Zero could be brutal when he wanted to be.

"Not unless one of them knew how to use a….lightsaber?" Milly said as she tried to recall what he had called his strange weapon. She could tell it was super advanced as she couldn't imagine a noble put there who wouldn't want a sword mixed in with techno-punk. Hell, she wanted one.

"I think that's what he called it. Never thought I'll see an energy sword." Rivalz said as they both went silent as they turned their attention to the TV once more.

* * *

(Saitama Super Arena)

" **And then there was one**." Zero said as the last prisoner stood across from him. Unlike many before her, she didn't buckle under his gaze but held her borrowed weapon strong as she tried to mimic the stance that Zero had been using this entire time.

"I-I'm not afraid of y-you." She was able to say with not much stuttering as she tried and failed to keep her fear from showing but dammit, she would at least got down with her pride.

" **That is quite admirable of you, Catherine Pearson**." Zero said as he got ready for her attack. At this point, the fact that he knew her name wasn't a big shock as she did recall be questioned extensively about such things. Sure she didn't give them anything but they probably compared her looks to the records.

"So you know." She asked him, not as afraid as before for some reason.

" **How could I not. The eldest daughter of Countess Pearson. Rather than marry like your sisters, you chose the military and found yourself stationed here, in Japan**." Zero said as he basically announced her name to the whole world. No doubt her mother and two sisters were losing it if they were watching this.

"I was stationed in Area 11." She shot back, hoping to get him angered but it was nought.

" **Oh yes, that is what they call it nowadays. But you have blood on your hands, my dear Cathy. You were the highest ranking officer of the soldiers captured. Meaning any crimes they committed while under your command**." Zero said as he let her came to her own conclusion.

"Are my responsibility." She finished as he gestured to the bloody trail leaving off the stage to an area where she could make out a truck. Were they just going to dump them? That was cold. "So I will die like the rest of them?"

" **Not quite**." Zero said as he deactivated his blade and placed it back on his belt.

"Wha-!" She started in shock but was interrupted by a loud and much unexpected gun-shot. She dived for cover thinking she was the one being shot at but the gasps from the crowd didn't agree with that.

 **Bang!**

" **I was wondering when you would act, should have known the life of the noble was what it would take**." Zero said. She opened her eyes to see that he was the target and by some work of god or the devil, the bullet was still in the air-being suspended in place mere inches from his head.

"You knew?" Someone from the crowd asked as they jumped onto the stage, not caring for the 9 assault rifles all pointed towards him.

" **I was able to pick up on your anger and your desire to kill me. I'm no empathy specialist but I can pick up on such emotions quite easily**." Zero mocked him as he let go of the bullet and let it fall down to earth. How he had reflexes fast enough to catch it was beyond her but she saw she had a chance with his attention split like this.

"So you're a telepath as well? That's just great." Reginald said to himself as he felt the nervous sweat build up. He didn't plan on this but his training kicked in when he saw a noble in trouble, now he has to deal with an opponent fast enough to catch bullets and a bunch of armed guards.

" **You were able to run the last time we came to blows** ," Zero said as he turned fully to regard this new annoyance. " **How do you think you'll do that now?** "

"We'll fight our way out." Reginald said as he noticed that Cathy was slowly moving to try and attack him from his blind spot. His observation was cut short when he heard Zero openly laughing at his statement. Someone had some pride issues.

" **My apologies, it's just that, you think you can fight me? And win?** " Zero asked him as he calmed down, now taking out his lightsaber once more. " **My, I haven't ran into someone so arrogant in a while. Unfortunately…** " He said before in a move that bewildered the minds of the people how saw it, he threw, like _threw_ his lone lightsaber behind him where it slashed right across the chest of the sneaking Catherine. In the same motions, he rose one hand towards Reginald and just like with Rolo, he found himself being lifted into the air while being choked.

'Shit, this again!?' He thought to himself as he felt his himself grow lightheaded as the blade Zero through returned to his hand like some kind of boomerang.

" **If you thought I'll give you a fight like some old knight's tale, then you are gravely mistaken**." Zero scolded him as Catherine dropped dead. His lightsaber hilt falling from her still warm hands.

" **[sigh] You just had to break the rules of engagement, didn't you?** " He asked as he turned around to face the body of his second last victim of the night.

"H-how are you doing this?" Reginald managed to get out as he found himself unable to cast his geass if his windpipe being closed up like this.

" **I have powers you could never hope to match. But out time is coming to an end**." Zero answered as he lifted him even higher into the air, the pressure around his neck growing stronger. " **I hope you said your prayers, since this…is the end.** " He finished as he clenched his fist and with that decisive motion, he crushed the windpipe of the child assassin. Killing him near instantly as his let go of his body as he fell down, the sound of bones breaking audible to both the crowd and the mic.

* * *

(With Charles and Marianne)

" **Let this be an example of what's to come. We of the Black Knights will not rest, will not yield till all the guilty are punished. Not until Pendragon burns, the nobles lay dead and Chares zi Britannia and his imperial court meets their ends at the Guillotine**." Zero said as the cameras zoomed onto him as he spoke.

" **Listen closely Charles, for this is a message for** _ **you**_." He said as he pointed one finger towards the screen, catching the attention of the man he wished to threaten, though he couldn't have known that. " **I will take away the fine clothes you wear, the food you eat, I will burn down your castles and villas, salt your fields and poison your wells. And you have nothing but ruin and corpses to your name** ," he paused for dramatic effect which Marianne could admit was effective since she could practically feel the fear flowing through Pendragon as the nobility and royals watched this broadcast. " **I** _ **will**_ **take your life**." And with that final message, the broadcast was cut-returning the screens back to their regular programming, though many couldn't focus on what they were watching before due to the shocks they have been given by this masked man. He didn't matter if you were in Area 11 or some other far off corner of the world, Zero had grabbed the attention of the whole world.

And they will be force to listen.

"Well," The so called deceased empress started as they turned off the screen. They had better things to do then watch mindless television. "If there were any doubts about if Zero was our son, we can throw them out the window. He wants you dead." She finished as she had no doubt that little cryptic line wouldn't get caught by anyone, though only the nobles who were present during his banishment would have a chance of remembering it and they probably forgot it by now.

"No, he wants to destroy me, not kill me." Charles corrected her as he messaged his nose. Great, now his arguable best son wanted to destroy everything he believed he loved and protected to get back at him.

"What's the play? V.V is sure as hell not going to sit back and do nothing after one of his agents just off put down in international television." They both know that boy was one of V.V's best so this slight would not be taken lightly, they could just hope that little imp didn't do anything that could jeopardise their plans. "We also have to consider that more elevens are going to flock to his banner after that. Meaning he'll have a larger pool of supporters." That was also a point that needed to address. They already know the boy had over 6,000 followers but if things were as bad as they thought they were in Area 11, that number could double in a week.

"For now, we will observe the situation and instruct Cornelia accordingly. We don't need to give Schneizel any more wiggle room." Charles said as they both knew Schneizel was gaining more power both in the court and government. They had long since known about his little Damocles project due to their own spies in the Toromo agency, though he'll give the boy credit, it took longer than he wanted but it had paid off greatly. It was how they found out that Schneizel had yet to find anything better than sakuradite powered bombs for his flying fortress.

"Also," Charles started as he had a feeling that this state of affairs had more to deal with his son then he let on.

"Hmmm?" His wife asked him.

"Order the pacific fleet to build up. The federation isn't going to wait for the boiling point, we need more naval strength in the Pacific to keep them at bay." Charles ordered as could foresee that in small invasion by the Chinese was unavoidable at this point. All they could do was keep the damage to a minimum.

"We can send two escort carriers and 7 destroyers via the Panama canal. That should be enough but it'll take at least 11 days for them to get to Area 11." She replied as they couldn't take too many vessels away from the Atlantic fleet otherwise the EU might try something funny. They hay of had the larger navy but France had the superior ships. After they lost the British Isles, they never recovered their place as the lords of the Pacific from their age old nemesis.

"Hmmm, that will have to do for now. Once Cornelia gets a better understanding of the things on the ground, we can make more detailed plans." Charles stated as they would be forced to wait till they got a finger on the pulse of this mess.

"Charles," Marianne asked, sounding concerned which was something he didn't expect from her often. "Are we really going to do it? Are we really going to fight our children?"

"It is the only option we have, they will never willingly lay down their arms. But do not fret," He replied as he didn't wish to see her cry but he also didn't want to lie to her, so he chose the next best thing. "Once Ragnarok begins, we will see them again." He soothed his wife as she wiped away some tears from her eyes as she got up from her seat and begun to walk towards the door.

"Yes, but we must obtain two more thought elevators. The one in England and the other in Spain." She said just as she walked out of the room.

* * *

 **And that is the end of that chapter. If you didn't pick up on it from reading, this was based off Amon's debut in legend of Korra as to me, he was the most powerful villain of the show as he outwitted both Korra and her allies at nearly every turn. Hell, he never even got that final fight as with his blood-bending mastery, Korra could have lost as Aang only broke out of the control by tapping into the Avatar State, something Korra could not do till the literal last episode of season 1. Hell, it could be impossible for any avatar if this kind of blood bender had the power-up of a full moon on their side.**

 **As you can imagine, the stadium could have held more people but remember, it can't be at its best structurally so I kept the number down. The next chapter will have the fallout of this little show and some more action if I can squeeze it in.**


	28. The Forming Cracks

**Well, that got real messy, real quick. I'll be honest here, that was one of the main reasons that I wanted to even write this story, to be able to put in such a scene where Lelouch shows both his showmanship and vengeful nature for the entire world to see. However funny enough when I drew up the first and even second plans for this story, I estimated that what would be book 1 in a series of stories based in the same universe would only be 30 chapters but with how things are going, I had to revise my plans and the chapter number came back as more along the lines of 33-which is a good thing for me really as I don't want to rush things, things need to happen at a reasonable pace after-all.**

 **SulliMike23: You know I can't tell you that but I can say that with his fashion of doing things, it'll be grand.**

 **Vein Bloodborne: Thanks for that, I've had that one cooking in my head so long that I was so happy when I finally got the chance to put it into words. And yes, he did pull a little birdie to both Cornelia, the nobility and V.V because in my own opinion, if there are three sins that Lelouch embodies it would be Pride; Wrath and Sloth. That last one is from the fact that unless he wants to, he won't work as Shirley points out. The middle one…well if you watch the show, then I don't need to explain that and finally-pride. His pride in his abilities does get the best of him from time to time but for the most part, he can back up his bark with a bite.**

 **one-eyedtitanking: I wouldn't say it's the best as I can think of authors on this site that wrote some damn good stories of their own but appreciate the thought.**

 **Blaze1992: A cult sort of formed around Zero in cannon so it's nothing new, besides once he brings Earth into the galactic community, he'll learn that although his special-he's no God that should be worshipped. Besides, I don't even think he would want to become a God as you would need ego the size of a death star to even consider it, that's Schneizel.**

 **1 love m4gic: I based his height off two sources, the first being cannon and the second being what I observed from myself and my own group of friends, we didn't really grow from age 18 and have only recently started to gain more weight and height. His height wouldn't be an issue as no-one guessed his identify or even age in cannon as from that we see when he starts with his command staff or even other Britannians, he isn't short as he's quite tall for his age(if you don't count Gino). Don't worry in book 2, there's a time skip where he grows some more so be patient.**

 **Dragonheart of Ireland: Well, the wait's over because this is it. The best part is that C.C. can't even feed them important information as they don't take about most things in the house or leave files unattended, there is a small child after-all that may take them.**

 **Geer123: Well he knows it'll come out sooner or later so I thought it best to reveal it himself. Thanks for your words, no-one I know had gotten sick yet but I'm not counting my chickens before the eggs hatch.**

 **7: Well it was meant to be shocking.**

 **MM Browsing: I don't want to say but what the hell, I do have plans for Marrybell but not so much for Peace Mark as I didn't read the extended material for the show other than the audio books I know next to nothing about the both of them and I'm relying on a friend that did to feed me that info. As for the bodies, don't worry-he's not savage nor is he dumb enough to let the empire paint him as one, their remains will be sent back to the colonials for burial outside Japan.**

 **JCarrasco: Thnk u.**

 **Murraymint835: Can you repeat your review, I couldn't understand it-it seems like you made some spelling errors.**

* * *

 **Chapter 27: The Forming Cracks**

 **10** **th** **November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

 **Viceroy Palace:**

"Give me an update." Cornelia said as rubbed her forehead. Ever since Zero's little media announcement, things have gone from really bad to downright terrible. She found herself pulling more all-nighters just to keep things afloat then she would want to admit. And she wasn't the only one. At her prompt-Guilford stop up and brushed his hand through his messy hair, he too hadn't had much time for himself.

"Mam, as you know, it's been a week since Zero's media circus. In that time the situation has grown worse as three separate supple mission to Hokkaido have been stopped by rebels we believe to be the Black Knights, one of those supply ships used aircraft but they were shot down before they even made it out of the main island's airspace." He reported as all their screens flashed and changed to show video or photos of the incidents. The plane crash was the worse as the missile used to shoot it down blew off the tail section, so there were no survivors.

"Our northern units won't hold out much longer we they'll ran out of food and munitions." Jeremiah noted with a troubled brow.

"That is the situation there. The commanding officers have been ordered to acquire food from local businesses but there isn't much of a weapons marker for them. As it stands, they've been ordered to halt all patrols and operations outside Sapporo and Hakodate." Guilford went on as they had tried to get them to continue patrols but if they did, they'll burn through their supplies by the next week.

"Which leaves the county side without an imperial presence." David muttered to himself. "Perfect for zero and his minions to run amok unchecked." He spat out as he wanted nothing more than to kill that monster after he saw his so called revelation, more out of fear then anger. No man had the right to have that kind of power

"As much as it pains me, there is not much we can do. Most of our space naval assets are in play keeping an eye of the federation. If you were to try and bring in ships from other areas-we'll be risking the entire area." Claudio calmed his brother as although he shared his feelings, they couldn't afford to not have cool heads, now more than ever.

"That's not the only issue here. There have been four new riots all over Area 11, they may have been suppressed for now but they are growing in numbers. The last on in Nagoya Settlement had over 4,000 people." Euphemia reminded them as the main screen at the head of the table turned on to the news from the previous night. It was disheartening to see fellow Britannians citizens in the mob.

"That's not counting that several commoner worker groups have been asking question about how policies and management. As it stands now, we have to put a temporary ban on numbers in the settlements to prevent the unrest reaching them." Villetta said from her place next to Jeremiah. Kewell would have joined them but they needed someone to keep the investigation into Zero supervised.

"Which in turn, just adds fuel to the long term issue as thousands of honourees can no longer work, which rises tensions even higher." Nonette summarised as she could see where things were going. They were being outplayed and it was starting to show.

"The usual methods would only lead to more violence from the elevens so we've been keeping the peace with as little bloodshed as possible, however that requires more men that we have on the ground. At this point, even off duty law enforcement have been called in." The minister of police informed them as he had to call in over half the off officers just to keep things as they were. They simply didn't have the man power for this.

"Things aren't just shaken up here, in areas 15 through 18-riots and protests against the crown have also broken out. Some handled them like we did while others…." The minister of internal affairs started they were getting flak from the leadership of other areas, asking why they couldn't stamp this rebellion out as it was now emboldening others to rise up.

"Just cut them down." Euphemia finished his sentence as she had no delusions about the nobility and her siblings. She may care for family with all her heart but she wasn't blind to their flaws. Flaws that dictated they shoot numbers first and listen to their pleas and demands never.

"Which only made things worse. As it stands now, Area 18 is still under martial law and Areas 15 and 17 may be soon to follow." The minister reported as the situation was growing critical. It was clear that if things don't clear soon, the empire as a whole will have to deal with a multi-front rebellion era. And with the EU and federation baying for their blood, it would be a bloody affair.

"I finished a video meeting with my brother the other day and according to him, the nobility are incensed. They want Zero and his Black Knights destroyed." Cornelia spoke up for the first time so far and like her people, she was tired and irritated as she never liked most nobles but now she downright wanted to kick their collective asses. While they cry and demand that Zero be eliminated, they don't even have the slightest clue as to how hard that desk is proving to be. If it was easy, she would have done it already!

"Easier said than done. It bad enough that he killed a high ranking noble on television, it's even worse that he had the gall to send the remains with note reading 'Please don't bother burying them in Japan.'" Edgar stated as they did receive the remains. They had been found in what was a fake BK storage warehouse. Each person was in a simple wooden coffin with their names written on top with a damn black marker along with a note all but demanding they are removed from Area 11.

"There has also been whispers amongst the lower ranks, questions of competence against us." Bart brought up even worse news as he had overheard some low level troop asking if they were really as good as they were rumoured to be and he agreed. It was downright disgraceful that the 'Goddess of Victory', a Knight of Round 'The Spearhead of the Empire' and the goddamn Glaston Knights have found nothing but traps and defeats.

"We need a win and soon, lest we have to worry about insurrection from your own troops." Alfred said as he was itching to gain such a thing. He and his brothers had been hard at work training in their new knightmares. He was confident that with their Vincent Commander Models-they were sure to push these rebels back.

"But how?" Jeremiah was forced to the naysayer. It felt like acid on his tongue but it has to be said. "Zero seems to be a step ahead of us at all times. What would we even do?"

.

.

.

"Use that against him." Cornelia said as she had an idea.

"Pardon?" Nonette asked her.

"If Zero has us where he wants us, then why don't we go with the flow and use that to our advantage?" Cornelia asked them as she thought of a plan that may work.

"How so?" One of the ministers asked.

"We know that he has been targeting supply train. So why don't we have a train head north under the pretence that's it supplies. We supply it with an even larger guard then the rest so it seems like it's a desperate bid to get supplies up north." The viceroy started to explain her plan till Nonette picked up where she was going with it.

"But rather than supplies, it'll be us in there, right?" The Knight of round finished the plan and when the princess nodded her head, she pull back her own and laughed. "Ha! A tracked version of a Trojan horse. That's not a bad idea."

"Add in the fact he doesn't know we'll using new models, his forces will be caught on the back foot." Guilford added as he started to see how this plan wasn't just their best option but it also gave them the element of surprise. Something they had been lacking since they started this fight.

"It's not a bad idea. Definitely a plan we haven't used in the past, so he most likely wouldn't see it coming." Claudio thought aloud as he felt a smirk work its way onto his face. Finally a chance to actually do something.

"I'm glad you think so because that's what we're going to do. With any luck we can kill that masked bastard in the attack. Make ready because we'll begin the operation in 4 days. Dismissed." Cornelia ordered them as she turned her seat to face away from them and rather faces the window.

"Yes, you highness!" They all replied, except Nonette and Euphemia who just got up and nodded their heads at her before walking out with the rest of the group.

* * *

(The next day – Pendragon)

"Kannon, do you think Zero studies history?" Schneizel asked his faithful aide-to-camp as they both stood in his office.

"What do you mean, sir?" Kanon asked his master. As stated earlier, the room was the office for the prime minister which showed as not only was it quite large and grand designed, but it also contained the busts of past PMs on one side. Schneizel would have one of his own but there are only commissioned after that individual leaves office. It did offer a great view of St. Darwin's Street and the many other grand homes of the high nobility.

"The French revolution was something all the major powers of Europe saw coming but were still unprepared for when it hit. Within a couple years-a strong monarchy was toppled and in its place – a wave of chaos till Napoléon came about." Schneizel elaborated as he picked up a small book that describe those very same effects. The book wasn't too big as the empire liked to forget that period in its history but Schneizel already had a large collection of French literature about it. He liked to be in the know. "He was as great a politician as he was a general as he focused all the people's hatred from their own leadership to the other nations of Europe, still ruled by kings and queens."

"And with him at the head. We were forced to flee out true homeland. Which paved the way for the EU to form." Kanon finished the thought before he dawned on him where his liege was going with this. "But you don't think that-"

"That Zero is using his playbook? No, but he most likely take pages from it. As things are now, we are in a similar spot to what France was all those years ago. So it also stands to reason that Zero has long term goals in the works." Schneizel shot that idea down. He didn't know a lot about Zero but he didn't seem like the type to copy someone else. Thought that didn't mean he was against learning from both the failures and successes of others.

"Does he perhaps wish to join the EU? The Black Knights have been reported to use European arms." Kanon suggested.

"Possible but not likely. From the way he's been moving. It's more likely that he's moving to be a leader, not join a leader's group." Schneizel replied with a frown. The mention of the EU dampening his mood as they had been just wasting time in negotiations. It seemed that they all found their spines now that Zero was running amok in area 11. Unlike his father and most of the general staff, he didn't think war was necessary but if things don't improve, it'll better to throw the first punch or hold off the entire operation entirely.

"So how to we proceed?" Kannon asked him as he walked over the side of the office and started to prepare some tea for his master.

"Keep close tabs on Area 11 for now. If any more surprises arise, we'll be forced to send in another knight of round." Schneizel answered as he could see that sending in more troops would do little good. Though a Knight of round was the best option seeing how Marrybell and her Glinda Knights were occupied in area 18 at right, they would need to be equipped with a seventh gen machine as Nonette learnt the hard way, that Zero's fraction had them beat if they continue to use sunderlands and gloucesters.

"But sir, the only available one is…" Kanon started as he brought over the cup of tea which Schneizel took out of his hands and thanked him for.

"Sir Bradley. I know cannon but sometimes you have to let the animal out to do his thing. I just hope he doesn't kill off too many people again." Even Schneizel couldn't find much to like about the Vampire. Sure he didn't really shred tears for the deaths of hundreds if not thousands, he never wanted death when there were other options but it seemed all that mad-man wanted to do as kill people. If he could pull the man records, he wouldn't be surprised if he also loved torturing animals in his youth but alas, he was Knight of round and therefore out of his control.

"Let's hope it doesn't came to that. With Bradley, he only stops if there's nothing left to kill." Kanon stated as they both knew that was no joke.

"How a lunatic like that become a knight of round is beyond me. If my father wished for them as a group to inspire fear, there were far better solutions but lately, no for years now he's been preoccupied with something." Schneizel muttered to himself as he took a sip of his tea.

"But we have yet to identity what has been taking up so much of his attention." Kanon reminded him as they had spent the last three years looking into whatever the emperor was doing. Seeing how they needed to be quiet about it, they couldn't move as fast as they wished and had yet to find anything.

"Yes, that has proven to be a challenge for us. But sooner or later, we'll find something. Secrets do have the habit of coming out at." Schneizel replied as he looked out the window. If nothing else, he could always out-last his father as the man although, powerful was still a man in his 60s. At best he had another 20-25 years of life in him as there would be no way for him to hold onto power if he was too frail with age. Thought Schneizel didn't particularly like that option as anything could happened in that 20 year plus window to derail his plans.

"Then we shall keep up the search." Kanon assured him.

* * *

(On the other side of the Imperial palace.)

"Those two are really causing trouble for us." Charles rubbed his head to help with the headache as he and Anya(Marianne) rode in a carriage down one of the many private gardens of the imperial palace. He would have preferred to stay inside and work but she was insistent that he get out more.

"It seems that I stand to be corrected. He really does intend to destroy the empire." Marianne said as she looked through the news feed on Anya's phone and saw that the level of unrest was rising. It wasn't too much of a problem as the crown prince had been doing more than his part to keep things calm.

"At least that fool, Odysseus has made himself useful. He has been traveling around the empire to placate the masses and local lords." Charles noted as he was slightly surprised when the man approached him and proposed his own trip around the empire to deal with this, normally he wouldn't have said anything or he would have waited till he was told.

"He may not be the best of your children but he does have some talent." Marianne told him as she never really had a problem with the crown prince. Sure he was lacklustre but he was still a decent human being.

"But not enough to be a true heir." Charles reminded her as the boy was only still the first in line by virtue of his birth. "But the fact of the matter is, he's isn't just playing the game, he's setting the board so they we would either fall to him or buckle under our own weight." He finished as he could imagine how much his errant children are enjoying this.

"As things are now, I've already discussed it with the high command. The January offensive into the EU will have to be postponed till this mess is sorted out." Marianne said with a chuckle as it was more Anya doing the talking and but talking, it was just her sitting there and giving one or two word answers. Gino was still a star to be around, always smiling, always cheerful-even in the field of combat. "And we were set to take back the British Isles too."

"Can't be helped. We can't go starting fires when one brews in our backyard." Charles finished as they went back to the comfortable silence as they carried on with their ride.

* * *

(On the other side of the world)

"You seem to be enjoying yourself." Lockon noted as their boss sat on his seat, mask off with a steaming cup of coffee and an air of smugness to him.

"How could I not? Everything is going far better than I could have hoped!" Lelouch laughed as they had all went through just a brief summary of how things were swinging in their favour. At present, they were back in their underground headquarters discussing their next move. The only key differences being that Nunnally wasn't present and in her stead, sat Rakshata who had already been sworn to secrecy about their identity.

"We made quite the splash the other day, these are just the ripples." Liu Mei said as she threw the papers she was reading back onto the table.

"If that's the case, what would things be like when we make waves?" Alleujah asked as they had already how uneasy the people were becoming. It was clear that those in the settlements were on edge as when he went for a walk his lover, Marie in Nagoya settlement, it felt like most of the Britannians they came across wanted to pack up and leave or buckle down and fight.

"Let's not discuss that right now, we have other things to talk about." Lelouch stated to the get the meeting back on topic. "What is the situation?" At his question, Tierra stood up and started to read how things had been going for us.

"Right, so as you ordered, all members have been ranked into 16 tiers, with each tier having a higher security clearance then the last which combined with the already strict 'need to know' basic established, have made it next to impossible for sensitive information to leak." He reported as their new policies had made it that not even members could access info that wasn't important to their station and tasks. They had caught some guards gossiping about their duties and swiftly punished them with lavatory clean-up duty for the next 2 months.

"We've also been able to infiltrate all Britannian warehouses in Hosu. That combined with our record high recruitment numbers, means that soon the number we'll need for operation Island Getaway would be achieved." He said to them, which really rose the mood of the room as everyone besides Rakshata knew what Island Getaway meant. "38 of our positions have been uncovered by the authorities, 31 of them are dummies, 21 members have been arrested or otherwise gone dark. However as far as we can tell, the imperials haven't been able to get anything from them." He finished his report as he sat back down.

"How much new recruits are we talking about?" Suzaku asked, to which Warwick answered.

"More than four thousand in the last week alone. By month's end, we'll have taken in at least nine thousand." The dirty blonde reported as he had personally overseen that report being written up just to make sure the numbers weren't false. As it stood now, there were the largest insurgency in Japan by quite a margin. "The added public support from the Japanese has also made it much easier to operate in the ghettos undetected." That was also a nice touch. To be able to move about the ghettos and not have to worry about some-one calling the imperials. So long as they didn't make much noise and kept fighting off the streets, the people were content with them running around.

"Things are really coming along. If we're lucky, maybe we'll finish the phase 1 early." Leila said as she leaned back into her chair. If they completed phase 1 sooner, they'll be that much closer to helping the people of Europe and giving them the liberty and freedom they had been promised decades ago. As she did so, Akito laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, she didn't need to turn her head for him to know she appreciated the gesture.

"Don't get your hopes up. Production of new tanks and knightmares is already at full capacity and yet, we're struggling to meet demands." Hammel reminded them as their R&D had reported that they simply didn't have the factories or man-power to meet their demands for new tanks and knightmares. At beast, they'll have another 115 knightmares and 54 tanks by months end.

"It seems we're the victims of our own success. But don't you think the MDZ zone couldn't pick up the slack?" Rakshata asked them as she took a puff of her pipe.

"And yet unknown parties have access to our machine and facilities? Never. We will just have to make do with what we have right now." Lelouch shot that down just as quick. He had his concerns about the current Indian leadership and worried that they'll either lose the plans or sell them to the federation to increase their standing. He'll just have to order the increase of production capabilities on their end, or perhaps request Kyoto supply them with some of the units they had been building

"Oh poo, I was looking forward to meeting the brains behind such creative machines." Rakshata replied as she breathed out a puff of smoke, and she was so looking forward to seeing how their wonderful creation were put together.

"Don't worry, she will meet her soon enough. She has also taken an interest in your work." Suzaku stated, revealing that their own genius was female to Rakshata but she held her tongue, best to find out all you can before your first meeting.

"And with our next operation?" Hammel brought up.

"I will not be present. Nakamura here has arranged for me to have a little chat with the Russian foreign minister." Lelouch announced as his ever present aid-Nakamura shot them all smiles as she waved at them her place behind Lelouch's seat.

"And how did you pull that off?" Kallen asked.

"I did use to work as a foreign diplomat. It may have been a short career but I made many friends and earned a whole lot of favours." Nakamura replied as she was quite the social butterfly, even if she only worked for a couple years-that proved to be more than enough time.

"Favours we intend to make full use of. If we are to succeed, then we will need some powerful trump cards to keep the federation at bay and the empire from counter-attacking." Lelouch reminded them as he didn't want to play their real card till the time was right. They would have gone on if not for an interruption in the form of a knock going off on the door, which gave the trio enough time to put their helmets back on before a low level trooper came rushing into the room.

"Excuse me sir!" The trooper reported as she saluted them all, slightly out of breathe from what must have been a run all the way here.

"What is it?" S.K. asked.

"An urgent message came in from our surveillance and communications division." She stated as she held out the closed report in question.

"Is that so? Hand it over." S.K. ordered as to which she marched forward, saluted him again and handed the report to him.

"Yes sir. Once more, apologies for interrupting the meeting." The trooper said before they saluted the group as a whole and quickly made their way out of the room. In the meantime, S.K. opened up the report and started to reading through it, soon after starting he started to chuckle.

"Well look at that." He said as he turned the page and kept reading.

"What does it say?" L.M. asked him to which he paused, before closing the report and handing it to her.

"It seems we intercepted an encrypted satellite message from Pendragon. The empire will be holding off any aggressive actions towards the EU and its holdings." He said to the group as L.M. read through the report and saw it was true.

"So that means they're taking us seriously now. That can't be good." Alleujah noted as this would mean the empire was willing to invest more into seeing them crushed.

"Quite the opposite really, this will accelerate our plans even further. Chances are that a portion of those very same troops who would have invaded the Eu will be sent here to squash our rebellion." Zero put in his assessment, showing that he saw this as an opportunity and not an obstacle.

"Only you would be happy at such news. As good as we are, we can't hope to match their numbers, not unless we pull out all the stops." Lockon joked as he took a swing of the chilled water from one of the glasses on the table.

"We won't need to. All we need is the date those troops would be scheduled to arrive. Once we have that," Zero replied to them as he sent them all, bar Rakshata a mental picture of what those transports would and where they'll head up. "We'll seal their fates."

"…Actually, you're on to something. If they pass through the point we hope they do, then it'll be turkey shoot." Liu Mei concluded as a smile broke out across her face. Oh the carnage would be glorious.

"But that would add quite the number to the expected death toll. Need I remind everyone that we don't have the capacity for more than 8,000 prisoners of war? What would we do with the rest?" Tieria asked they simply couldn't hold that many, even if they stuffed 10 into a cell built for 4, they'll still wouldn't have the space.

"Of course we won't kill them, that'll be a war crime. We'll leave them where they stand. If they starve, it's not our fault." Zero brushed it off as it was nothing though they knew he had seen his fair share of this war raging between the Sith and Jedi so by comparison, a couple thousand dead wouldn't mean all that much.

"That's cold." Kallen noted to their leader as sure, she would happily kill their enemy but such numbers did leave a pit in her stomach.

"That's war. If we try and supply them with provisions, we'll burn through our reserves too quickly." Hammel responded with a cold but logical response.

"Now, onto other affairs…" Zero said as he turned attention towards the other matter of their training camps needing additional personnel and resources.

* * *

 **14** **th** **November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

 **Viceroy Palace:**

"Sister." Euphemia said as she walked into her sister's office. It was rather late as the barely seen Sun was soon to set, the snow and frost outside the window made her glad she had chosen to wear winter clothing rather than her usual dress whenever she went out.

"What have I said, sub-viceroy?" Cornelia didn't even look up from the load of paperwork she was working through.

"I think that this situation calls for it." Euphemia counted as she approached the desk and took a seat right in front of it. "Since I'm approaching you as your sister, not your underling." That got a response the elder li Britannia paused what she was doing and placed the pen down.

"You will always be my sister first, Euphie. You know that, don't you?" She asked her sister as she looked up to her.

"I do but things have been…." Euphemia struggled to find the right words before she just gave up. "Hectic."

"That's an understatement." Cornelia huffed as she looked to the side where she had placed a picture which had her and all the Glaston knights standing proud outside an enemy fortress they had laid siege to and successfully taken. Oh how she missed Andreas.

"Sister…" And after seeing the picture, it seemed like Euphemia was about to buckle to tears but she slowly breathed out before coming herself down and just ripped the band-aid off. "About our approach on the Black Knights."

"Please don't tell me you're against our plan?" Cornelia asked with narrowed eyes. She knew her sister's views didn't align with hers but had hoped she had grown past this phase.

"…No…Even though I hate the fact that people will die, I can't think of another way around it in the short term." Euphemia replied, showcasing how much she had grown which Cornelia was booth proud of and vexed by as it now meant she didn't just act on impulse but rather thought about her actions first.

"But in the long term?" Cornelia asked her.

"We need a peace deal." Euphemia replied and if she were anybody, Cornelia would have flown the rails in fury at such a statement but she held back her rage, through barely.

"What? Did you just say what I think you said?" Cornelia asked her, wanting Euphemia to just take that back but she did not, rather she pressed.

"Sister, I'm serious. Zero isn't being back by neither the Chinese nor the Europeans as far as we can tell yet he has done this much damage. Even if we don't see eye to eye, Area 11 cannot stay this unstable for long." Euphemia reasoned as they both knew that if things grew worse, the federation may step in which would lead to a proxy war.

"Then we'll just stamp him out as quickly as we can." Cornelia brushed her concerns aside. As if she would make peace, with the numbers?

"And how fast would that be? Would it take another week? A mouth? Six? Sister, we lost Andreas to them, we lost Alex to them. They aren't just everyday soldiers. Everything about the Black Knights was built and trained to battle larger threats." Euphemia shot back, showing that she had clearly planned this whole thing.

"So you have been listening to military reports." Cornelia stated as she sister always seemed like she hated those meetings.

"It's hard not to when you attend every meeting." Euphemia answered with a bland face as she had been attending such things with her sister for around two years now. "And yes, I miss them too. Andreas was a great man and even greater father but if we think with the mentality of an eye for an eye, we won't just find ourselves blind." He said to try and convince her sister she what good would continued aggression do for them?

"So you want me to make peace with them? When they have cost us blood and machine?" Cornelia asked her, her fury starting to show but her sister would not be daunted.

"The alternative would be a slow fight which would only cost us more, and leave us vulnerable to our other enemies. I don't I need to remind you that our nation isn't the most popular." She reminded them as neither of the super-powers were friendly to the others. It what wars between them rare as if two fought, what was stopping the third from either siding with one.

"You…make a point. As painful as it is to admit." Cornelia growled out as she fell back into her seat, clearly Euphemia came with a plan of attack, one she couldn't really defend against. "But how do you intend to get a message out. You and I both know that if we ask for parley, it'll be seen as weakness." She asked as they both knew their government and nobility would never hear such a suggestion. Hell that wasn't even considering what their father would do to them.

"That, I do not know. Perhaps using one of the captured prisoners as a messenger?" Euphemia suggested to which her sister shot that down.

"Not likely to work. Most don't trust known prisoners. For all we know, he won't contact his allies for fear of being watched." Cornelia said as from their rather small amount of BK prisoners, they all didn't seem stupid as there was little chance any of them would do what they want.

"Then tell them. Inform him of what we want. That way he can contact them but not leak anything." Euphemia gave her opinion.

"Good luck finding one that would agree. Black Knights don't seem to like us all that much and have impressive wills. Not one has broken during interrogation not matter what we do." Cornelia said as she gave her plan her approval before she gestured for her to leave so that she can get back to her work.

* * *

 **Nothing much to say other than this chapter was merely written to show how the people are reacting to the events of the previous chapter. Chapter 29 will have some more good old fashion fighting but for now….thank you for reading.**


	29. Battle of Yonozawa: Bloody Snow Fall

**Okay, back to the battles, as foreshadowed in the last chapter, this one will have a little fight in it as Nelly finally figured out a way to set up a good trap. However, will that be enough as the rebellion is starting to gain momentum and support? However, I would like to point out that as far as empire's go, Britannia does a really good job of taking care of its citizens as we know that neither Shirley, Rivalz nor Nina were wealthy or part of the nobility yet they and many others in the settlement seemed to have good lives so before you all start to think the empire is doomed, it's not and Lelouch is targeting numbers as they no doubt make up a good portion of the population and not everyone in the empire(Britannians) would be okay with their uprisings and strikes being put down violently like normally, hence why Cornelia couldn't pull her Saitama stunt, too much public attention was on military activities and her trying to replicate Clovis' crimes wouldn't help them at all.**

 **tf330129: I will.**

 **Vein Bloodborne: Yes, they are getting to that point but she doesn't know the Black Knights are being led by her siblings, at this point, only Euphemia has the suspicion due to her remembering Lelouch's final letter to them and Zero's cryptic words from the hotel jacking. She will come forward to her sister about her suspicions soon since as you say, time is running out for them.**

 **Command Unit: Jar Jar…..Man oh man, I hate him so much, even in the CGI Clone Wars cartoon series, he's a blubbing, clumsy and idiotic fool. How Padme can stand him shows she has the patience of a saint, but the fact that they still delegate to him important jobs of representation for both Naboo and the Republic as a whole makes me think she needs her head examined or Palpatine had a sense of humour. Although I do find the theory that it was all an act and he was a sith lord the all-time funny as I can see an abridged movie where he reveals the truth to them and asks them if they actually thought he was that stupid and they say yes.**

 **JCarrasco: Thank you, I will.**

 **Blaze1992: Because the empire isn't that fragile. The cracks are forming but it'll take more than that for shit to really hit the fan.**

 **7: Well royalty and angry commoners are mortal enemies so Charlie is gonna have to worry bout the fires his rebellious kids are starting in his backyard.**

 **Guest: Suzaku was too far for Nunnally to drop off the kid and leaving her would also be a bad move as there was next to no 'safe spots' for a child, especially if she moved to another area as let's face it, kids never stay put. Even though they wanted to stop the massacre, Lelouch wouldn't have done it without more information as to why Clovis would chose such a drastic action as when you think about it, how would the elevens in the ghetto used that knowledge against him as he controls the media, police, military and courts so even if they started rumours about him affairs, politicians and government figures deal with that all the time so next to no-one would buy into it. C.C is also immortal and can't be killed by normal means and Clovis knew that, so it wasn't like he wanted to kill her but rather retrieve her. She was also not willing to share secrets with him so why would he think she would tell others as it wasn't like she had any wounds or scars to back up her story? These are the questions he would like to know. Is it cruel to let people die as he gathered this? Yes, but was it worth it in the end? Also yes as that was what gave him the ammo he used to track down the rest of the evidence and expose Clovis in such a manner it was impossible for anyone to deny his crimes as you must remember, Lelouch is a man that believes the ends justify the means to an extent.**

 **Greer123: Thank you for your kind words, your review came in just as I was finishing this up so you're lucky I noticed it before I posted this new chapter. And there is nothing I like better then seeing the results of a character actions as in cannon, we see how the Japanese rally to his side in both series, to the point that in season 2, some might have considered him divine as he seemingly came back from death and performed even more miracles, the whole scene with him leading 1,000,000 people, all his followers out of Japan to a new land was so well done, it was obvious that it was inspired by Moses and him leading his people out of Egypt, though I can't recall if Moses led over 1,000,000 to freedom. It was also a nice little slap in Suzaku's face as saw first-hand just how many people are devout followers of Zero and his 'immoral' methods and how far they are willing to go as they would rather take exile then live under his and Nunnally's 'rule' as let's face it, how the hell did anyone think she would make a good empress when she had what, a couple months as a viceroy under her belt? At least her brother had experience in leadership, actual leadership as he built and ran the black knights, built the UFN, reorganised the Black Knights into an actual legitimate fighting force, even when she was Viceroy, it was mostly Lohmeyer and Suzaku running the show.**

* * *

 **Chapter 29: Battle of Yonozawa: Bloody Snow Fall**

 **14** **th** **November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Tōhoku region:**

 **Onroute to Yonezawa**

" **Does everyone remember the plan?** " Cornelia asked everything on the radio.

" **Wait for them to come to us** ," Alfred started to answer from the cockpit of his Vincent Commander Model. He like his brothers, Guilford and Cornelia were not only hiding in the separate train cars of the fake supply train but they were also piloting 7th Gen machines.

" **And when they get close, we spring the trap**." Bart continued on as he rolled his shoulders in anticipation for the upcoming battle.

" **While a third of us stays and fights, the other two thirds will flank them from both sides**." David finished with a smirk, finally being able to ride into battle and avenge their father.

"Beautiful. Gotta love when a good plan comes together." Nonette commented from the custom built knightmare, the 7th gen model Lloyd named Bors. When she had first laid eyes on it, she was immediately in love with the unit and now she would finally be able to prove its worth in battle.

" **What I'm more concerned about, is whether or not they'll show up**." Guilford, being the voice of reason voiced as it was no guarantee that the Black Knights would show up, and if they did-would it be a large force?

" **Our scouts in the area have reported significant Black Knight activity in this region. We were as careful as we could be to leak the false information about this train without making it seem like a trap. All we can do now is have faith that the plan will succeed**." Claudio replied as he understood the elder male's concerns as he would hate to use off their new machines to their enemy outside of a major engagement as that would give Zero time to plan for them.

" **That is right, I'm tired of being on the back foot. This time we strike back**." Cornelia stated as she gripped the control columns tightly, his eyes set on the enemy that had yet to appear.

" **Yes, your highness!** "

"Nelly?" Nonette asked on a private line after everyone else signed off.

" **What is it Nonette?** " Cornelia asked her old friend.

"About that Euphie brought up…" Nonette started as Cornelia had shared her thoughts on her younger sister's words to the knight of round and she, like herself was a bit sceptical on it.

" **It's not something I like to entertain, even if it does make sense**." Cornelia said as she wasn't blind to the situation, things hadn't been going their way since she first landed here. The presence of a knight of round doing nothing to help.

"Well, she does make a point." Nonette said as she reached for her neck and pulled out a necklace. "Things are only heating up." She finished as she stated sadly at the broken key on the end of it. Thinking of her own past.

* * *

(In Yonezawa)

" **The train should be here any minute now**." Alleujah reported as he and the rest of the Zero squad hide amongst the ruins closest to the rail-line the train had to take.

" **Same routine as before?** " Liu Mei asked with a smirk as she fastened her helmet on.

" **Tag it, bring it to a halt and steal whatever we can carry. Burn the rest**." Lockon answered from him position 3km back. His machine covered by a camo tarp to ensure it would hard to spot him.

" **Isn't this load a bit big?** " Kallen asked, eager to test out the new upgrades to her Guren as Rakshata was finally finished up the new additions.

"Normally I would say yes, but the imperials have been bleeding for supplies up north." S.K answered. His own unit close to Kallen's as he was given command of their entire operation by Zero himself, which meant his personal force was under his direct command for this mission. "This shipment also has a larger than usual number of guards going from our scouts reported. So it would be fair to say that the imperials really need this one." He finished explaining as he had his own doubts about this mission it wasn't too out of place.

" **Still, I'm feeling uneasy about it all, maybe that's cause the boss ain't here**." Lockon spoke up as they never really did do a lot of missions without Zero being somewhere on the battlefield. It was even an unspoken rule amongst them that he always have at least one of them nearby in case of emergencies.

"Even though he would love to lead by example, we all have our roles we have to fill." S.K stated just as one of their scouts called in.

" **Sir, we have incoming**." One of their teams of scouts in the area reported, this particular duo laying low on a building's roof under camouflage blankets with the other using a pair of binoculars while the one speaking manned their radio.

"Aright people," S.K said as he and the rest of their raid party begun to slowly move towards their positions. "Show time."

* * *

(On the train)

"Passing though Yonozawa now." One of the conductors said aloud as they rolled on through the ruined city.

"The place's a ghost town." The other pointed out as he looked out the window at the empty streets and snow covered rubble caking the area. Good thing it wore his jacket today.

"Yeah, well the elevens don't come to the city centre all that much anymore. The only thing here is a small collection of factories." The conductor replied as the town was largely abandoned, using some parts of the outer districts were in use.

 **BOOM!**

"What the hell was that?!" The second conductor yelled as they had felt the explosion before they had heard it, the conductor would had been knocked to the floor got up and saw that the large cloud of smoke where he believed the explosion to have originated, was right in front of them and closing fast.

"The tracks been blown out! We need to break, now!" The conductor yelled as he reached for the emergency break.

"Breaking!" He yelled as he pulled the lever, causing all the breaking discs on all the cars to lock up at the same time, it was a dangerous move as it wore down both the breaks and the wheels but it was the only way to prevent them from derailing and crashing.

'Looks like those bloody numbers took the bait.' The second conductor thought to himself as he held on for dear life as the train begun to slow. Pretty soon the train came to a halt just a mere couple metres from the mangled and destroyed remains of track. Not a moment later, 15 Black Knight knightmares, supported by at least 2 dozen infantry that were hiding in the snow came out of hiding and approach them, guns aimed at them.

" **Off the train! Now!** " One of the costumed CGUE demanded of them as the Black Knight infantry, in their white and grey camouflage combat uniforms slowly approached the head car from all sides, their rifles loaded and primed to fire on any who thought themselves heroes.

" **You have 40 seconds to comply or we will fire on you!** " Another knightmare, this one being a red hunched beast with a silver claw spoke as it moved closer through the snow.

"No Wait! We're coming out!" The main conductor yelled over the speaker before they started shooting.

" **How many people are on this train?** " The first knightmare, this one piloted by Alleujah asked.

"Just us and three others acting as guards." The conductor replied, a bit scared that this may be his dying day. Even if he agreed to the viceroy's plan, it wasn't as if he could have said no.

" **Do it**." Kallen said over the radio to the infantry as they moved in faster now to check the cargo of the train.

'Shit, that doesn't look like Zero's. Does that mean he's not here?' The second conductor thought to himself as he reached for his sidearm. He knew it would be useless against the knightmares but the infantry-he wasn't too sure of the even if he didn't get a good look of their combat gear, he could tell that it wasn't some 2nd hand black market gear.

"Let's see what we have here, maybe it'll be another ration delivery." One of the troopers on the ground said as he let go of his Heckler & Kock G36 since he was wearing the strap for it and climbed into the train car. He was reaching for the door when it opened itself, before he could make sense of the situation, he found himself being shot by automatic fire. "What the-ARG!" the trooper screamed in surprise and pain as although his armour soaked up the worst of it, he was still shot in the arm twice and fell off the train car.

"What is God's name!?" Another trooper yelled as one they all trained their guns on the car from which a familiar sight of a Gloucester jumped out and started to fire on them, and it wasn't the only one as more came out of the car with imperial infantry shortly following. "Ambush!" A trooper screamed as another run forward to retrieve the wounded trooper as the other train cars opened up and from them, imperial forces raced out to meet them.

"Scatter, scatter your fools!" Kallen ordered as she jumped in to engage the enemy knightmares to give their infantry time to retreat to better ground.

"The trap is sprung, attack!" Cornelia yelled over the radio as she piloted her light purple and black Vincent Commander Model into the light of the snow covered day. As she jumped out of the train, she spotted an enemy GINN and with speed and reflexes the eleven pilot couldn't track, she closed the gap.

"Yes, your highness!" She heard her troops rely as she impaled the GINN with her double Lance-type MVS blades(She already snapped the two lance type blades together so she's using it like every other Vincent pilot in cannon), it's armour proving to match for the blades as it pierced right on through, causing the unit to explode along with its dead pilot.

"That's no Gloucester," One of the pilots near to Kallen tried to curse but found himself being confronted by two members of the Glaston Knights, hungry for blood. "It's too fas-AAG!" He tried to fire on but David fired his slash harken, knocking the gun of his hand while the Bart came around and stabbed him right in the back.

"How you like them." Lloyd asked them over the line. As he was no soldier and not even Nonette could stop him, he was monitoring the systems of the Vincents from a safe distance of around 40km, well out of range of enemy scouts or fire. He wasn't alone as like always, the entire A.S.C.E.E.C. was with him, with the Lancelot acting as back-up if anything went wrong.

"These new models are amazing, looks like these dirty elevens lost their edge!" Alfred boasted as he got in close with another GINN, primed the systems and landed an elbow strike to its chest, however it was no normal strike as the Elbow-mounted Needle Blazer shot off on impact, blowing a hole in the unit clean to the cockpit which killed the pilot and down the unit.

"All that time in the simulations and dry testing, it all pays off. We're gonna pay you back for all the deaths you caused!" Edgar raged as he engaged with a fierce battle with Alleujah, he was actually being pushed back, much to his surprise.

'New enemy models? Now of all times?' Suzaku thought to himself as he jumped head long into battle along with Kallen but found himself being confronted by two Gloucesters, both armed with their golden lances. 'Focus Suzaku, they were bound to create them sooner or later, but I would have thought Cornelia would save them for the field of battle.' He finished the though as he drew both his vibro blades and got to work, easily fighting off the outdated machines.

" **Sir, we've been caught in a trap. Shall we retreat?** " One of the pilots asked of him.

"Don't be a fool, they may have new machines but we have combat experience, switch to plan B-12 and attack!" SK ordered as he bashed aside one knightmare before slicing into the second, causing enough damage in that one attack to cause the cockpit block to jet away.

" **Sir!** " And with another stroke of the controls, he blocked a strike from the second enemy knightmare but didn't give it time to break away and regroup as he activated one of his 75mm Foldable HEAT Railguns and blasted a hole the size soccer-ball right on through the enemy knightmare's lower torso, a second later-it exploded before the damaged cockpit block could eject.

"Looks like I'll be getting a workout after-all." He muttered himself as he looked around and saw that they were engaged in a ferocious battle rather than a simple supply raid as originally planned. He was about to move to assist them when his force sensitivity alerted him to a danger before the knightmare could and like a muscle reflex he brought up his shield to block a powerful shot from an incoming threat.

"Hi there!" Nonette greeted as she came to halt right in front of him, her new machine kicking up snow and ice. And speaking of new machines….

It was clear to him that whatever this was, it wasn't some customised unit but one specially built, most likely 7th gen like the Lancelot. From the scans his AI was running, it was both taller and heavier than the Lancelot model. It was as sleek as one would expect from a 7th gen and painted purple and white, with shining gold eyes. For armament, it was equipped with a larger than normal Blaze luminous shield generator on the one forearm and what they came to know as the VARIS rifle in the other. There was also a stored blade, most likely MVS on its back but the handle seemed longer than normal, the end looked funny as well.

"A Knight of round? Looks like the colonials are pulling all the stops." SK joked as he crouched down slightly, he wasn't dumb enough to go easy on someone of her talents so he got ready for a serious fight.

"Sorry about this but you're gonna be my dance partner today," Nonette said as she put away her VARIS and pulled out the MVS that Suzaku noticed and activated it, showing that it was no blade but rather a double sided MVS Axe(think Astrid's from How to Train Your Dragon) "Hope you can keep up." She finished as she charged him down.

"We'll see you leaves who in the dust!" Suzaku shot back as he fired both his railguns at her, which she reacted to quite nicely as she jumped over them as they slammed into the ground, digging up the dirt still moving towards him, she swung her awe around her knightmare's body as she came down on him with a heavy swing, to which he blocked once more with his shield, however the force the blow did push him back and leave a sizable burnt looking gash on the shield's surface, something Suzaku noted proved that weapon as no joke.

* * *

(Meanwhile – On the outskirts on the other side of town)

"What, the raid party is engaged in combat?" Warwick asked, having just been informed of the battle unfolding on the other side of town from their field office.

"It appears so, looks like the imperials set up an ambush using the train." One of the operators reported as he along with the rest of the staff were in another mobile command truck.

"Cheeky colonials, didn't think the so called Goddess of Victory had it in her." One of the senior officers present muttered to herself.

"Not important, what is their current status?" Warwick cut through that as he directed his attention to the screen showing the positions of all their assets in play.

"Sir, it looks like they've already lost 3 units. Enemy numbers is 20 units, including eight unknown frames and infantry support." One of the controllers reported to him as he listened into incoming chatter.

"Unknown? Are they customised units?" One of the officers asked as she turned away from the tactical screen to address the controller.

"Negative, they appear to be completely different to almost anything in we've seen, however, according to Alleujah, they seem to be modelled after the Lancelot unit." The controller reported back as they switched one of the screens to the live camera feed of Alleujah's unit and to their surprise, they saw that he was engaged in combat with two of the Glaston knights in unknown frames.

"They already have 7th gen machines based on it? That is fast, we didn't think they'll get so many combat ready at this point." Another officer said as he turned back to the screen and saw new enemy dots being highlighted.

"Sir, enemy troops are flanking the raid party. Scouts report 8 to either side of them." One of the controllers updated them as they scouts radioed in saying that enemy units were trying to flank their main force and they were currently engage in a fire fight with them. Warwick turned his head to look at that portion of the tactical display and sure enough, a combined force and infantry and knightmares were moving up on them, he immediately realized that their scouts had nothing that could take down knightmares and would be wiped out if they didn't receive aid.

"Dammit, send in reinforcements. Tell them to go after those flanking troops before they can dig in, if they do-it'll be a turkey shoot." Warwick ordered.

"Sir!" A controller replied as they immediately set to work contacting the force of knightmares they left in the ruins to meet up with the scouts while another 2 dozen infantry were make their way to assist SK and his men fight off Cornelia and her knights.

* * *

(Meanwhile – With Zero)

"Greetings, Foreign Affairs Minister Chugunkin. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Zero greeted in Russian over a telecommunication line with his Russian half. He was currently back in Black Knight Kanto command, taking the call in the main meeting room.

"And you as well, Zero though, I was not expecting you to know Russian." The politician replied to him, speaking in their native language. Foreign Affairs Minister Chugunkin was a rather short but still intimidating women in her late 50s going by the slight wrinkles around her eyes and greying brown hair. She had pale white skin and bright steel eyes hidden behind a pair of rather expensive looking glasses.

"When it is the language of over 143 million people, one should consider picking it up." Zero replied to her, to which she didn't visible react but he could tell that she wasn't unimpressed.

"Indeed, but we are both busy people, what us your business here?" Chugunkin stated as she waved her hand at him as if he were a servant and unlike the grand majority of his siblings, he didn't take offense or at least, didn't react like a spoiled child but went with it.

"Straight to point, that I can appreciate. As for what I am looking for, we would like to open a trade deal." Zero told her rather bluntly.

"Trade deal? If you wanted such a thing, then I'm the wrong person to talk to." She replied to him.

"Not so, if it were a normal trade deal, then going to your minister of commerce would be the logical step but this is anything but normal." Zero answered the unspoken question of why came to her.

"I'm listening." Chugunkin replied as she leaned in slightly, giving him her full attention for him to give his pitch.

"I'm sure a women such as yourself can tell that the Black Knights have not only done much more than anyone expected but we also have quite the potential to accomplish greater things." The masked man started.

"I will admit that you and your people have caused quite a stir in Area 11, even having heads turned to observe you here in mother Russia but what of it? At the end of the day, for are talented and proven you are, you are a terrorist organisation." She said harshly, not entertained if he thought this was some kind of Dragons Den situation.

"I will not deny your claims as you are correct, we are a textbook example of such an organisation but we do have bigger ambitions than merely retaking Area 11. We plan to change the world for the better, so such powers as the federation and the empire can never rise again." Zero replied, not at all offended by her words as she spoke truth. They were terrorists, terrorists that had a moral and ethical compass yes, but terrorists nonetheless.

"That sounds like nonsense, Napoleon said the same thing when he marched on St. Petersburg and forced a peace deal that favoured him. What makes you so different?" She asked him as she recalled that bitter time in Russian history when that French Bastard, Napoleon actually planned for a winter war with Russia and had enough supplies to keep up his march all the way to the capital where he forces to Tsar to sign a 'peace' treaty that basically had them admit defeat, pay 80% of all the charges the war brought on for both sides and made them subservient to France which two years later, established the EU.

"Because I've learned from Napoleon's mistakes. He believed that his family and relatives could bring about a new day but in reality, he was only in it for France. Why else had Russia, the nation with the largest population in mainland Europe, been delegated a lesser seat then Spain and France?" Zero asked of her, playing on the long present Russian resentment towards France but he wasn't wrong as Russia had a less voting power then both Spain and France, only having more voting power then the individual eastern and south eastern European nations. "The world I and my people wish to bring about would honour the lies sprouted by the leaders of the EU, true liberty and justice for all."

"That's s a nice little speech Zero, did you plan that?" The minister asked of him, intending to mock him to try and bring him down a peg.

"My yes I did, one must be prepared for such meetings after all. But let us discuss such now, let us discuss the deal I wish to make you." Zero joked, not at all phased by her bait.

"Alright, you have my full attention, Zero. Speak." The minister chuckled a bit at his answer.

"I wish to open a trade deal with Russia in which, for exchange of material such as food and medicine, we supple you with arms since you must know that our knightmares, are state of the art. Far superior to anything else in mass service such as the Panzer Hammel or Sunderlands of the empire." Zero proposed to her, catching her off guard slightly.

"You would trade your equipment for such few, no weapons?" She asked as most resistance/terrorists groups would only ask for war material.

"We already have our ways of obtaining such. But for the new nations to succeed once we banish the imperials from its shores, we will need to feed and care for the people." He answered her, showing that he did indeed believe that they could win this fight and that he was also planning for the burden that came with governing and caring for a nation.

"So you really thing you can do that?" She asked, intrigued but this man who had done more harm against the empire in the months he had been active most other resistance movements had done against the empire in the last 20 years.

"Of course, with our strength in arms and growing numbers, soon the people of the Japanese isles will know freedom once more." Zero replied, his confidence in his people and strength absolute, something the minister noted.

"What would be the numbers here?" She asked of him, wishing to know what she would need to report back to her Tsarina.

"As you are not currently in dire need of them, 200 knightmares with an additional 40 every month for 18 months." Zero replied, having already made orders to his R&D to set aside the necessary units for the deal. "In exchange for 39.191 billion rubles worth of food and medicine for the first 200 and 7.838 billion for the 40 knightmares being offered, monthly." He finished.

"That is a high price Zero. Are your machines worth such an investment?" The minister asked him as she did the math on her calculator quickly and saw that for the 720 coming in at the end of the 18 months, they would need to pay over a trillion rubles. If she was taking to anyone else, she would have ended the call right then and there but so far Zero had proven himself so she gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him continue.

"That and more, what you are being sent in actual combat footage of one of our GINNs with a rookie pilot vs an Imperial Sunderland. Observe." Zero said as he tap a button on his keypad and within seconds, she had received an encrypted file which auto played itself. She was treated to actual combat footage off the GINN in combat and saw that it was superior to the imperial model in every way.

"As you already know, the Sunderland is the backbone of the imperial knightmare forces and is already better than the European Panzer Hammer and Federation Gun-Ru, so you can imagine well advantageous having knightmares capable of running circles around them and gloucesters would be." Zero tells her as the video switches to show GINNs piloted by Tohdoh and his Holy Swords running circles around Cornelia's royal guard, something that the JLF didn't know about as he neglected to inform him that the GINNs he gave them had been fitted with anti-theft fail-safes, trackers and transponders that sent the BK all their combat data. He knew it was shady but he didn't waste years learning politics and tactics for nothing.

"I will admit, they are quite the tools of war." Chugunkin replied, trying to hide her own amusement at seeing such a skilled team being defeated. "But I would imagine that you would offer…more?" And just like Zero predicted, she was a politician so of course she would see how far she could push the envelope to benefit her side.

"Indeed. If you accept this deal, the Black Knights will continue to export Sakuradite to Russia as always but we will do so at a reduced price, around 45%. As well as exporting the unique fuel out Knightmares require as well." Zero offered as truthfully, he and the Black knights didn't even need the sakuradite reserves in Japan as they had much larger sources off world that only the knew about and could reach. The main reason he chose to retake it from the imperials was to put a strangle hold on their war machine as without area 11 to fuel it, their military efforts would have to be drastically cut. It was for that reason and his council didn't see the harm in offering discounts to friendly nations.

"I think we can work something out, tell me more, Zero." The Minister replied to him with a sly smile, believing she just got the best deal.

"As you wish, Minister Chugunkin." And she did, the best Zero would give her as he not no delusions here, he knew that if need be, Russia would sell him and the Black Knights out. So he rigged the whole thing so that if or when that situation arose, there'll be a nasty surprise waiting for them.

* * *

(Back in Yonezawa)

"Keep up the fire!" On the GINNs called out as they hide behind a ruined wall to avoid the fire from the other side.

"Pin them down!" A Black Knight trooper yelled at another as she fired off her rifle towards the imperials, successfully, shooting on in the head.

"Take out that building, they're using it as sniper's nest!" An Imperial yelled as another threw out a grenade towards the Black Knights.

"Wounded! I got wounded!"

All around the rail line, scenes like this were playing out in vivid detail. The imperials fired off from the train and nearby buildings while the Black knights countered from positions deeper in town, using cars and shell holes/bomb craters are makeshift trenches to protect them. The battle hadn't been going on long but it had been high passed enough for dead and wounded to start to pile up on both sides. The Black Knights may have been out-numbered but they made clever use of the terrain which combined with their experience in guerrilla urban warfare, gave them a fighting chance.

'Dammit, things are really going to hell over here!' Suzaku thought to himself as he fought with the Knight of Nine, finding himself unable to downright defeat her which at least showed off she wasn't another noble in a robot.

"Sir, do we keep this up?" A trooper asked him over the radio from their positions near the thick of it. Already the trooper had lost three guys with another wounded which left blood stains and puddles all over the place, painting the white snow crimson as more fell on either side.

" **Don't give them an inch!** " Suzaku replied to him, already feeling the pressure of leadership as he had been informed that the back-up that should have been larger than the couple extra guys they got was being redirected to prevent the imperials flanking them. He knew that he could retreat into the crowded city but that would mean giving up more ground and limiting their escape routes as most of the subways lines here was too dangerous to move something bigger than a car, never mind a knightmare. " **As for you, you're really starting to bug me**."

"Just starting do, my I feel offended." Nonette quipped as she jumped back to give herself some distance. "That shield of yours is pretty tough, but I can see that sooner rather the later, I'll smash right through it." She observed with a smile as she was really enjoying having this advantage again, as for Suzaku, he merely tightened his hold on the control columns as he gave his shield a side glance and saw that it was covered in gashes and cuts, even missing nicked off pieces.

'Dammit, she's right. This was designed to be used against Blaster Fire, not MVS.' He thought to himself as he figured he could use the shielding but that would draw power from other systems to reinforce the shield itself. 'The only consolidation is that her shield takes up energy to activate and hold, mine doesn't.' He concluded as unlike his own shield which was for the most part, a solid piece of gear-she had an energy based one which meant that if her power dropped, so too her defence.

'So which will give first, his shield or many energy levels?' Nonette asked himself as she had the same line of thinking, even if she didn't show it, SK was really pushing her towards her limits as already she had to blocked more than a couple shots from those hip mounted railguns of his and they were powerful, not as strong as a fully charges VARIS but close as it took a lot of power to block.

"Burn, Britannian!" Meanwhile nearby, Kallen was having no such trouble as she was able to smash right on through the imperial ground troops, killing a couple under foot before she grabbed the head of a gloucester, with a flick of the wrist and a push of a button, she filled it with enough radiation to cause an explosion. No cockpit was ejected.

" **You'll pay for that, you Red devil!** " Alfred yelled as she came screaming down on her to avenge his fallen countryman. He went for a thrust with his lance but Kallen saw it coming and reacted like a true ace.

"Get real." She yelled back as she grabbed at the lance with her silver claw and activated the surger, and just like everything else she used it hold, the weapon bubbled up, forcing Alfred to abandon it before the effects reached up his arm with the weapon being discarded just as it exploded. But that did leave him an opening to exploit.

" **Goodbye!** " He smiled as he fired off both slash harkens at her chest and head, hoping for a stun blow but he was in for a shock when the harkens didn't even phase her and merely bounces off, as if striking an even harder surface. " **What! Impossible!** " He yelled in disbelief but found himself distracted, something that cost him dearly Kallen made her move and grabbed the head of his Vincent, the claw digging into the material.

"This the power of the Radiant Wave Surger! The moment you stepped in close, my victory was assured." Kallen told him as she fired off the surger, blasting lethal levels of radiation through the Vincent's head into the rest of the body. She didn't even move back as the unit exploded, killing the pilot as her own newly installed shielding took the blast without fault. 'Good thing Rakshata was able to complete those upgrades, the new shield generator may be an energy hog but it really help in a tight spot.' She thought to herself as she moved on.

" **Alfred!** " Claudio yelled over the radio as he just watched his brother die. But before he could try and chase down the Guren, Lie Mei was able to knock him back and with her shotgun, fired a blast of towards him, he was able to dodge the worst of it but it still caught him in the arm, blasting the limb off from the mid-forearm. His only saving grace was that it wasn't the arm carrying his duel MVS lance.

"Your fight's with me, little man." Lei Mei joked as Alleujah used the chance to meet up with their infantry to try and take care of the foot soldiers.

"Dammit!" Claudio cursed as he charged his new opponent who just took to the skies and flew over him and started to fire with both her rifle and shotgun, forcing him to dodge shot after shot with the added bonus of hearing her taunt him over the radio.

" **Long ranged support, people! On the way**." Lockon called out as another one of his shots hit home, this time causing a small garage a group of imperials were using to take cover in to collapse on them.

" **Would you pleases stop that? We don't need you saying such nonsense every time you fire**." Tieria asked as he fired off a volley that took out two enemy knightmares and a train car. At this point, there wasn't much left of the train as both the head car and several others had either been shot full of holes or downright destroyed.

" **What? It adds to the experience. It's not like I say the same thing**." Lockon teased as he aimed for another target, this one being one of the knightmares trying to move in from the side.

" **And yet, it's equally annoying each time**." Tieria replied as he fired off a shot and killed a group of imperial taking over behind a building, a lot of good it did it as his shot demolished the building before blowing them to bits.

" **Party pooper**." Lockon replied with a smirk as he successfully crippled the enemy Sunderland as his shot took out one of its legs.

"Call me your immature names, I have a job to do," Tieria answered as he lined up his shot to a special target. "And a target in sight." He finished as he tried to lock onto a certain light purple and black knightmare.

" **Claudio! How you holding up?** " David yelled over the coms.

" **Fine, these terrorists don't know when the quit. Where the hell is that flanking team?** " Claudio demanded as it had taken far too much time, they should have been in positions by now.

" **They say that they were intercepted. They making progress but it's slow**." Guilford said as he took out his fourth enemy knightmare and dashed off towards the would-be fifth.

"Die, you eleven!" Cornelia yelled as she came down on Suzaku while he was still busy with Nonette.

"Shit!" He thought to himself as he help up his damaged shield just in time to block the strike, which proved to mush stronger than anticipated as the blow cut deeply into his shield.

" **Can you handle the two of us?** " Nonette pressed into him as he was barely holding her back with his one blade against her axe, the sheer weight of the weapon pressing down on him.

" **He doesn't have to, Brit bitch!** " Luckily for him, Kallen had been pursuing Cornelia and was able to jump to his aid. Kallen reached out to grab Cornelia but she saw the move coming and recalling what that claw could do, broke off from her attack on SK and retreated a bit.

"The one from Narita, this time will be different." Cornelia vowed as he twirled her duel MVS Lance.

"Ha! I'll have to wait till I see it, witch. This ain't Pendragon, so get use to things not going as you want!" Kallen taunted as she charge the princess with her claw and combat dagger at the ready.

"The nerve!" Cornelia raged as she pushed her own machine forward to meet Kallen in a high speed melee. Cornelia was careful to avoid the claw as she knew that if it caught her lance, it was a goner so instead she pushed for Kallen other side where all her unit had was a knife.

" **Looks like she made nelly angry**." Nonette joked as she fired at SK with her VARIS, forcing him to dodge as he pulled out his own rifle and started to return the favour with blaster fire.

" **Trust me, you're princess will be nothing more than melted flesh soon enough**." SK said as he jumped over a shot and fire both his rifle and railguns on the knight of nine, forcing her to put up her shield to tank the blast.

"We'll see about that, Black Knight!" Nonette claimed as she advanced on him, firing low powered shot after shot try and nail him with rapid fire.

" **My lady!** " Guilford called out as he came to Cornelia's aid, surprising Kallen as he came up from behind and forcing her back from Cornelia, at the cost of knife which she had to abandon.

"Great, another one!" Kallen swore to herself as she found herself in a two on one.

" **Leave this one to me!** " Guilford said as he held out his lance towards the Guren.

'Shit!' Kallen thought to herself as she saw that back-up wouldn't get to her in time and she was now up against someone with much more experience than she and with a machine that could keep up. She was about to think of a way out until she saw a message from Tieria pop up on her screen, telling her to move. 'Wait a minute.' She read the thing and nearly instantly realized what it meant as he would always give such a heads-ups before he fired a shot near friendly forces.

As if commanded by the Gods themselves, Kallen surprised the two imperials when she ran to the side and jumped unto what was left of the train and raced off. They were surprised as neither picked her out to be coward and she had no real ranged attacks other than her grenade launcher. They immediately went to pursue but heard another one of those booming shots. As it picked up the shot being fired, Guilford realized why the Guren moved back.

It was coming for them.

" **Your highness-ARG!** " Guilford yelled out as he pushed Cornelia out of the way and found himself shot by Tieria. However unlike with Andreas, the shot didn't hit his Yggdrasil reactor but it still did a number as it tore right through the right side of his unit, taking and portion of the cockpit block with it.

" **Guilford!** " Cornelia screamed as she could once more, only watched as one of her closest friends and confidantes took a hit meant for her and paid for it. The only good thing that came from it was there was no explosion, only the crashing sound of Guilford's unit ploughing into the snow due to its own momentum and loss of balance.

" **Gill!** " Nonette cried out as seeing his unit slide through the snow till it came to a halt, leaving a trail of oil in its wake. However in her surprise, she left herself open.

" **Wide open!** " Nonette heard SK cry out as he charge her, knocking back into the fight but it was too later as before she could activate her blaze, SK brought down his blade on her Blaze generator, cutting right on through and deep into the arm before he pulled it out and fired on her, forcing her to fall back now that she had no way to shield herself. " **All Teams, retreat! I repeat, retreat!** " SK called out over all BK frequencies as he put away the blade and pulled out a chaff grenade before throwing it down.

" **We're running?** " Alleujah asked as he fired on Bart's unit, managing to hit the unit in the right shoulder and taking out the arm.

" **This whole operation was a bust. We've lost enough men already, all men to your assigned retreat locations, fall back!** " SK ordered as he piloted her machine into the ruins of the town in search of his subway exit point, the rest of the zero squad soon on his tail. Within minutes, almost all BK forces had pulled back and successfully escape the combat zones, leaving nothing but ask bloody snow, bodies and wrecked equipment in their wake.

All was not known to Cornelia as she cried out in shock and desperation as she hurriedly dug at the snow and dirt that Guilford's unit was partially buried in to try and save him, hoping against it all that he was still holding on to be saved.

.

.

.

The first and only battle on Yonozawa…ended in a blood stained and bitter stalemate.

* * *

 **And I'm done, it's the end of the month but it's done, the last posting of the month as there is no way I can finish anything before midnight so I won't even try. That was a great chapter if I do say so myself. I was able to do a battle scene, show off the skills of those involved and fit in a character death or two. Before you ask, yes I'm messing with Cornelia but giving her the protagonist treatment where they don't die but rather others take the bullet for them. First it was Andreas now it could be Guilford who pays the ultimate price. Also for the type of damage his unit took, think what happened to Cornelia's knightmare when the geassed Dalton threw his lance through her, just more devastating.**

 **For Kallen and the Guren, Rakshata simply added in a shield generator and some better equipped servo motors and OS. SO the Guren was much faster than cannon and could take a beating as the shield would soak up any real damage. An actual flight system will have to came later as they may need to swap out the Yggdrasil core for it's star wars counterpart for that, so for now-she's a land-lover.**

 **The armour of the Black Knights troopers wasn't the same of Republic troopers of the Old Republic but rather more along the lines of what Mandalorians wear, it doesn't cover everything so it's lighter and can take a beating as that one soldier who was inspecting the train found out, he was shot at by more than one person mind you, and yet-he didn't die as the armour soaked up any damage that would have turned his organs to mush.**

 **I hope that the chapter was to your liking as more like this one are coming since as previously stated, soon the entire of area 11 will be caught in rebellion, a war of independence.**


	30. Welcome to the Starship Sakura

**And we are back with chapter 30! I'll be honest, I didn't think it would go this long but you guys really have shown your support with this one so I couldn't not keep going. Though I was surprised by the rather…small amount of reviews the last chapter got, I know that I don't get a lot with this story but come on, that was low. Please if you read the chapter and have an opinion of it, whether you want to give suggestions, criticise something I did or compliment my work, I'll appreciate if you take the time to write a review, how else am I supposed to know your thoughts? Now that that's out of the way, the coming chapter. This one will have the aftermath of the last one as well as other new developments both in Japan and abroad.**

 **JCarrasco: I plan to, this is only the first in what I hope is a trilogy of stories, kinda like the original and prequel sequels.**

 **tf330129: Thank you.**

 **Vien Bloodborne: OH yes, what was supposed to be a simple raid/surprise attack digressed into a bloody battle with both sides leaving with new scars. Cornelia will handle it as well as you would expect, seeing how it was Guilford who got her out of her funk over Andreas death, now they might have to send two more coffins with the remains of their friends back to the homeland. Though with the way things are going, the sisters will learn the truth soon.**

 **Blaze1992: And it have certainly gone a hell of a lot better for the BK as well. The point was that no-one walked away being or feeling like a winner. Like when two guys get into a fight over a girl and she sees them, finds out why they're fighting and tells both of them to f*** off, leaving them bruised and sad.**

 **Chapter 30: Welcome to the Starship Sakura**

 **16** **th** **November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Kanto region:**

 **Black Knight Kanto Command**

"So to sum it all up," Zero stated as he stared down both his old friend and his personal unit. "The ambusher got ambushed."

"Afraid so, we can safely assume that the train was a decoy and we fell for it, hook line and sinker." S.K. reported as they had just finished giving their report on the earlier incident between then in the imperials.

"What were our losses?" Nunnally asked, seeing how the repot didn't give any numbers, only using the word 'severe' which was never a good sign.

"Equally dreadful." Tierra stepped back to answer. "Of the sixty infantry that were sent on this raid mission, 24 are dead and 19 wounded. In terms of knightmares we lost 8 of the 15 we had with another 3, including damaged and in need of repair." He finished as he gave a near non-existent look to S.K. whose unit was in need of a new shield seeing how the last one was on its last legs.

"Were the enemy models that impressive?" Zero asked, leaning forward to pay extra attention. They had foreseen the enemy upgrading their gear but they didn't think it would happen this quickly. Perhaps their continued successes was getting to the colonials.

"Yes, here is a clip taken from my unit." The strict member of the Zero squad replied a he played them all a clip of the units in actions. Even the ones when their own machines were defeated and destroyed. "You can clearly tell they were based off the Lancelot, and have skilled pilots."

"From radio communications from the battle, we can safely assume that those pilots are the Glaston Knights, who are down one member thanks to Kallen." Lie Mei stated as he was quite entertaining to piss those boys off as they fought, even if they didn't slip up in their anger-it was always entertaining to get under someone's skin like that, at least in her opinion.

"Good job rookie, you're first real kill." She went on as the clip changed to the one taken from the Guren's database, the one showing her roasting one of the new units.

"What the hell does that mean?" Kallen asked her, an angry tick forming on her forehead from having to deal with this annoying women on a day to day basis.

"It means," Lie Mei dragged it out, clearly enjoying how angry the only other female of the squad looked right now. "That it was the first time you beat a known ace and took their lives, the fodder in sunderlands don't count."

"Moving in, the real kicker was this one." Tierra just ignored them and continued on with the report. This one playing exclusive footage taken by S.K. unit when he fought the Knight of Nine. Unlike before, she was actually pushing his unit back and dealing some heavy blows with their axe of hers.

"It has signs of the Lancelot in its looks but it is drastically different to the unit. It was piloted by the Knight of Nine." Tierra said as Zero noted that the machine bared a slight resemblance to the GINN, it wasn't obvious but as one who was there when the unit was being developed and field tested on Mars, he could tell. The only other person in the room to pick up on this resemblance was Rakshata, who for once, didn't have her faithful assistant with her as she lounged on a sofa that was put in the meeting room for her convenience.

"Nonette? She really has moved up in the world, got herself a state of the art frame?" Zero stated as he started to think of all the ways he could break this new unit just like the old one. 'I wonder how easy it'll be to crush this one, certainly bigger than the last one.'

"So the enemy is wising up and beginning to field better units then?" L.M asked/stated as she reviewed her own terminal video. The engagement proved to be a bloody stalemate from what she could see.

"Still, I can't see them having a lot of them, our spies would have picked up any large number of them which means they are only those few and maybe another 10, 11 in the country." Warwick said as they couldn't have been a large number in the country, someone would have noticed something and shipping schedules hadn't changed, so there was little chance they were imported.

"Based on the fact that the ACEES unit is based here along with the brains behind the Lancelot, it would be fair to say that they were produced here." Alleujah cut in as he changed the terminals to show what they knew about the rather eccentric Earl. They knew a lot about his time studying thanks to Rakshata but personal life and work info was less forthcoming. Being a member of the ACEES made his files difficult to get to.

"So Lloyd is getting to work maybe new models already?" Rakshata spoke up as she took a drag from her pipe, something Zero didn't kind as the room as well ventilated and temperate controlled seeing how it was deep underground.

"That would appear to be the case Ms. Chawla. Would it be possible for your team to go over the combat data and analyse them?" Tierra asked of her, being his formal self as to go so far as to use her last name rather than her first like everyone else.

"No problem at all, it'll help with the upgrades I'll be planning with Kaya." She replied, showing her won mirth at the fact that she finally got clearance to meet his mysterious inventor/engineer.

"Oh yes, you'll all scheduled to finally meet the rest of the organisation, correct?" Zero asked as he thought to when he approved this. It was a tough call but he was confident she wouldn't be a problem. He really didn't want to have to kill her.

"Indeed. But I must say, finding out my new partners have an installation on Mars was quite the shock, how long would it even take for us to get there?" The Indian super genius asked her masked partner, who felt the rest of the room eyes on him.

"Well we'll be traveling using a Transport ship, which if it flew like a normal Earth space craft, around…." Zero answered as she did the math in his before coming to his answer. "113 days."

"And if it doesn't fly like a normal space ship?" Alleujah asked, not keen to spending one third of his year in space.

"Then the journey will be much faster, about an hour if we don't rush and take our time." Zero answered without fail. Now if anyone else had told them that, they would have ignored them or called them crazy but after everything they've seen from this man, including him using telekinesis to strangle a person to death and rip the guns out of multiple targets hands…..they had learned to take his word for it.

"…I might not be the best authority on space travel but even I know that bragging about cutting a trip that would take mouths by normal methods to a mere hour or so is big news." Lockon stated with a chuckle, though he was excited, what kid didn't want to go to space when they grew up and sure, he wasn't a kid but it was still going to be quite the experience.

"As I said in the past, Earth is on the lower end of the technological and medical spectrum." Zero repeated what was spoken during their meeting with Kyoto. "Moving on, while we are way, operation will not cease, in fact, Warwick found us an interesting target to hit." He gestured to the drinker of the group who nodded his head.

"Oh, tell us more." S.K. stated as the man sent all their terminals files pertaining to his target and plan of attack.

"This is an industrial district where the imperial manufacture parts for VTOLs and gunships, I propose we launch a strike on the facility using our new submarines as a launching point…" He started explaining as he went over infiltration, possible bomb planting sites and exfil, along with back-up plans for if they team is caught, if the info is not good, or if a firefight breaks out. As he went along, he answered the question from the group as they looked over the information.

'I love when a good plan comes together.' Zero thought to himself as he sat back and let his command staff handle this one, he didn't need to be involved with every thing, not when he had spent so much time building such a bastion of knowledge and battlefield experience.

* * *

(With Cornelia)

"How is he?" Cornelia asked as she stood at the bedside of her faithful knight, Guilford. They were still in the government headquarters but in the medical wing where Guildford had been transferred after his emergency surgery.

"Stable, just like yesterday." The doctor replied as he read through the notes for the sleeping man. "He was lucky that his cockpit filled with soft snow when it collapsed. It soften the impact." He stated as that was the man reason the man wasn't dead, if there wasn't snow, then his cockpit would have taken a harsher blow when it crashed into the ground and probably filled up with sharp, jagged rocks, something that had happened in the past.

"But it could have killed him." Cornelia rebutted, her fury barely being held back by her own temperament and the presence of both her younger sister and her friend, Nonette. Both of which had volunteered to accompany her to see him.

"But it didn't, he was recovered before he could perish to hyperthermia. Still, he broke several bones and lost quite a lot of blood, so he will be forced to stay here and heal at least for another three weeks." The doctor replied, scared for his life due to the glare he was getting from the royal before he swallowed his spit and kept on going. "After which, he would need bed rest at home for at least two weeks."

"Thank you doctor. We got what we came for." Nonette stepped in before Cornelia could hurt him. Even if she didn't like looking her the man that had her friend's heart dead to the world and covered in bandages, it was hell of lot better than looking at him in a coffin. "That is good news."

"Yes, thank God that he will live, even if he'll be out of the combat field for over a month." Euphemia spoke up as she took one of his hands into her own and gave it a squeeze.

"Knowing him, he'll try to return to your side as soon as he wakes up." Nonette joked as the three women left the room and headed back to the main office section.

"Don't be silly, he knows his own limits." Cornelia rebutted, she knew him for years and not once had he ever done something so stupid.

"I also know him, and when has that stopped him?" Nonette countered as she could of a few times Guilford showed his dedication to his princess. It was romantic at times. Like the time he passed out after seeing her naked, true that was her doing but she hadn't heard the two complain about it so they must have enjoyed it.

"Point taken." Cornelia conceded as she knew that he was her most loyal solider and closest friend. But then she had to bring up the lesser aspects of the operation. "How…how are the funeral proceedings going?"

"They were able to recover the…remains. They'll be transported back to the Homeland in two days." Euphemia answered, silently praying for the remaining Daltons as they had lost another one of their own. It was made worse by the fact that the explosive radiation hadn't left much of a body to recover and his tags were ruined by the heat as well and melted to the chest, they had only been able to identity him through DNA harvested, though that was just wishful thinking….believing it was someone else and that Alfred was till alive. "The boys wish to pay their respects before that happens."

"Even when we can fight back, we lose." Cornelia felt her fist tightened as that operation turned out to be a bloody mess. They certainly proved the usefulness of the Vincents but at the cost of most of their infantry and a skilled pilot like Alfred. The worst part was that they took no prisoners as the ones they found died before they could find out anything.

"That's not the only issue." Nonette pointed out, sounding quite serious which was in of itself, a bad sign.

"What more could there be?" Euphemia asked the elder woman who look at them both like she was about to shoot them.

"Bismarck contacted me yesterday." She revealed to them as they entered an elevator together. The news shocking them as they knew that Bismarck kept on eye on all Knights of rounds but he rarely ever directly ordered them as each was a capable fighter and commander(bar Bradley, who was a homicidal maniac only good for slaughtering large droves of enemies).

"The Knight of One?" Cornelia asked, hoping that it was a different man, even if that hope was stupid.

"Yep, the man with a goatee himself." Nonette replied as she shivered from the…call she had with her superior. "He said that the emperor isn't pleased with the three of us. He wanted this situation solved a long time ago."

"That is not good. Not good at all." Euphemia stated as they elevator came to a stop and they walked on towards the sub-viceroy's office.

"He says we have 4 months. If we can't deliver a breakthrough by then, we'll lose more than out posts." Nonette relayed to them as it seemed Charles had grown tired of this little rebellion. Now they had to settle things or risk death and though two of them were his own children, what had happened with Lelouch and Nunnally-both of whom were far younger than they-drove home the point to them and their siblings. They were his pawns and were only kept alive so long as they were useful or didn't anger him in any way.

'Things back home must really be a mess if he's actually stepping into government. But what does Schneizel say about this?' Cornelia thought to herself as it was strange for their father to include himself with government these days, with most of their family and high nobility merely chalking it up to his age but she knew better. "If you can, tell him we understand."

"Got it, hopefully, Lloyd can roll out more Vincents, at this rate-we'll need units for the regular pilots. I'll give Schneizel a call and see if he can't make that happen." Nonette responded as they entered the office where Euphemia took her seat by the desk as the other two sat in the chairs in front of it.

"Thank you, you have no idea how much this means to me." Cornelia thanked her friend as with any luck, they could have another 30 Vincents ready by the end of the mouth. Though she might have to contact her own friends in the arms industry and see if they can't spare a factory line or two to increase production speed.

"Hey, what are friends for? Besides, I can't let the two of you lose their pretty little heads of yours." Nonette replied with a chuckle, making light of the fact they be dead in four months.

'And she's back.' Cornelia thought to herself with a sigh as she could hardly remember a day when Nonette wasn't a wild one.

'Only she can make such a morbid joke sound humorous.' Euphemia thought to herself as she nervously chuckled.

* * *

(Late Afternoon – Vermillion Forbidden City)

"How is the inter-provincial train system proceeding?" Tianzi asked the attendant bowed before and the High Eunuchs.

"Everything is moving as to schedule. Work on the last couple lines will be finish sometime in January." The man replied, keeping his head down and face towards the floor, though the eunuchs believed this kind of behaviour suitable, the young empress hated it. She wished to be able to look able in the eye, Xingke always told her to do so as it was easier to catch a lie and because it showed that he cared enough to look at them.

"Good, see to it." She replied, keeping her own opinions to herself, though that proved to be a challenge to her.

"As you wish." The attendant as they stood up and without making eye contact with anyone, quickly left the throne room.

"I don't know why you are so concerned about the commoners." One of the High Eunuchs, the skinny one commented as they were spending billions on this project.

"A good ruler takes care of the people, because if you take care of them, they take care of you." The young empress replied as she kept her face as child-like and innocent as these 'men' were used to as to keep their guards and suspicions down.

"And why did you hear such things?" And it appeared her act worked as the fat one asked her a follow-up as he took a leg of chicken off a plate and took a bite, though at least he ate like a civilized person as the bite was small and he kept his mouth closed. She wasn't sure she could keep her cool if he ate like some humanoid pigs she read about in fantasy books.

"I read it in an old book from the library. Isn't that a good thing?" She answered, saying a half-truth as she did read it in a book, just not one from the library which was stocked with mostly useless material or propaganda.

"It's a waste of money if you ask me, they should be able to take care of themselves." The short one joked, getting chuckles from the others, though she didn't find it amusing, quite the opposite.

'Then why would they feel obligated to fight for their country when that country doesn't do a damn thing for them?' She thought to herself as she knew that the only reason there were so many people willing to join the armed forces was because it was the only way to gain a good income, and by good-she meant pretty bad but better than nothing. "But isn't that our job?" She asked them, to which all of them looked down on her, like always.

"Your highness," The fat one started, purposely not using the right title just to rub it in that she wasn't the real one with power. "Our job is to ensure that civil order is maintained."

'Figures, all you traitorous cowards care for is your greedy selves. And now you just keep me around to serve your own interests.' She said to herself in the confines of her head. All these pigs were concerned with was making sure they could continue to feed off the people of the federation like parasites without challenge. "Okay." She replied, keeping her tone and stance meek and submissive.

"Your majesty. You're evening dinner had been served. Shall I accompany you?" Her faithful and first friend, Xingke announced as he stepped into throne room, with him were four other guards that served directly under him-all armed with spears and swords.

"Hmm." Tianzi sounded as she got off her throne and made her towards him before the small group left the room all together.

"Little brat." They all heard one of the eunuchs mutter to themselves but restrained any other, this went double for Xingke as he felt his blood boil at the fact he couldn't address their disrespect.

'Don't. Not now.' Tianzi said with a small, near impossible to notice nod of the head, to which her faithful protector saw and cooled his temper as they left.

"Do you know what they made for me?" She asked Xingke in a tone that carried an air of innocence. Though to others it may have seemed like a simple question, it was actually code. The real meaning of the question was: Do you have any new information for me?

"I'm afraid not, this wasn't something I was clued into." Xingke replied to her, keeping his eyes straight and tone crisp. Real meaning: No, I have not been clued in with the new developments.

"Does it include Indian spice?" She asked him, her eyes shining as she thought back to the new spices they had recently brought for meals. This was a double meaning as she was curious about the meal but she also meant: Did they include Rakshata this time around?

"Yes, your majesty. They agreed to include it this time around." Xingke answered her as they turned a corner, passing one of the maids they already knew was in the eunuch's pockets. True meaning: Yes, Rakshata will be included in whatever their plans are.

"Yummy. Maybe it'll taste better this time around." The empress stated as she started to skip as they went, appearing to just be an excited young girl. Real meaning: Maybe we're learn more in her next report.

"One would hope, your majesty." Xingke replied as they passed through one of the many gardens of the palace, using the route as not just a short cut to the empress' private dining hall but to also take in the fresh air and the smell from the flowerbeds.

"Xingke." Tianzi requested as they came to stop so that the girl could look over the many plants and vines growing across the area.

"Yes, your majesty." Her faithful servant replied as he stepped forward and gave her a bow.

"What do you think Zero is like?" She asked of him. This time her question didn't need to be hid as the masked man had left quite the impact with their corrupt counterparts who at first thought they could make simple get rid of him if he became a problem, they wanted to make a deal with him in the hopes of obtaining even just some of the power he had shown. But what they didn't know was that one of Xingke's double agents had overheard one of them airing a proposal in a secret meeting she wasn't invited to. A proposal to try and marry(sell) her the man.

"What do you mean?" Xingke asked, recalling when he got the report on their greedy foils possible future plans, the rage that burned in him at the thought of the girl he swore to protect and serve being handed over to Zero of all people just so those bastards could gain even more undeserved power.

"Kaguya says he's really nice and they were are to be wed, she wouldn't marry a bad person, right?" Tianzi asked as they started moving again. She was honest with herself, she was worried for her friend who would frequently bring up the man in conversation. The girl seemed to have quite the crush on him and never had something bad to say about him which could mean he was a good person but since she had only met him in September, it could just mean she hasn't known him long enough to see his flaws.

"I don't believe she would. Zero is quite the man, very powerful." Xingke replied to her question with an answer with double meaning, the second being that: I trust her character judgement capabilities. Zero would be a powerful ally to have if she can convince him.

"Just like the wizards I read about, do you wizards are real?" Tianzi asked him, making a couple servant girls giggle quietly as they walked on passed, carrying out their duties. The real meaning of her question: Do you believe that Zero has similar powers to the suspects in those old reports?

"I can't say, I would have to research that." Xingke replied with a small smile as they reached a part of the palace which didn't have that many people as the empress didn't want a lot of people working so near to her own private sections of the place, keeping only the bare minimum of those who were either neutral and unaware of the state of the federation government or loyal to her and her cause. Real meaning behind his answer: I would have to go over the accounts again to make ensure if it's a possibility.

"Okay." The young teen replied as they kept on moving for a while, seemingly enjoying the quiet and calm of the snowy winter's afternoon. As they walked, they passed on by a vase which kinda looked out of place to them as unlike the rest of flower vases, this one had a notable lesser number of freshly picked flowers. Though this would escape the notice of most, they picked up on it but didn't act on it. Instead they kept on walking and by the 7th vase after the odd one, one of the guard with her walked a little closer to the vase and peered inside. He saw that in the water, was a white feather. When he saw it, he walked closer to the other and nodded his head.

.

.

.

"We're in the clear." Xingke spoke aloud as they all relaxed a bit, knowing that this portion of the palace had been cleared of any ease droppers and listening devices, the white feather being the sign that the area had been checked.

"Thank goodness, I don't know how much longer I can stand those pigs." Tianzi spoke up, her tone and posture instantly changing to a women with a backbone and a cause to fight for.

"It won't be much longer, you highness. The plan is moving forward but that is all I can say." Xingke replied to try and calm her, knowing that for the past year-she had been finding harder and harder to keep her real emotions in check around those they couldn't trust. He was proud that she had made leaps and bounds in confidence but also knew the dangers of the wrong people finding out.

"I hate the secrecy." She stated with a bitter bite to her tone, palming at the charm hung around her wrist, one that symbolised her vow to make the lives of her subjects better. A promise she couldn't even be open about without putting a target on her pack. It would be easy for the eunuchs to dispose of her and get some lookalike they can control to take her place, next to no-one had even seen her in person, the overwhelming portion of the population didn't even know what she looked like in the first place.

"It's the only way we can ensure the eunuchs don't find out about the truth. But speaking of unknowns. Do you really believe Zero can be of help to us?" Xingke asked of her.

"I don't know, he says that he fights for the weak so maybe he would help us make things better for the people here. Kaguya also speaks highly of him and…" She started but found herself pausing.

"And?"

"I think she knows who he is, there was that one time when we have our video chat and whenever Zero was mentioned, she would have that knowing smile on her face." Tianzi stated as her friend had been particularly happy about something ever since September, the same time she had met with him along with the rest of Kyoto. She didn't know what went down at the meeting but she did know that Zero had secured their full support.

'She is already learning to read facial ques.' Xingke noted to himself as he was impressed that she could pick up on that at such a young age. "Then it would be fair to assume she knows more than she is letting on." He answered as they moved. "But what do you intend to do with this?"

"Nothing. Kaguya has always been a good friend. She wouldn't so something to hurt me. If she wants to keep it secret, she can." Tianzi replied, her faith in her friend shining through as she refused to believe that she was anything but a friend.

"As you wish." Xingke replied, trusting her judgement.

"Still, about the fleet." She brought up, expressing concern for those lives.

"There is nothing I can do, you majesty. The commanders are all in the eunuchs pockets." Xingke sighed as he informed her. He wasn't in agreement with this foolish attack in area 11 as well. At best, it would cost thousands of lives and only give them a portion of the southern islands, at worst-it will be interpreted as an act of war.

"But why, don't they realise this could mean war." Tianzi shared his sentiments as she turned to face him, looking like she was about to cry. It was hard enough telling Kaguya that the federation was attacking soon but it was even harder to tell her she had no control in it.

"I doubt they care. As long as they get what they want." Xingke informed her, trying to be honest with her and give her the bitter truth rather than give her sweet lies. As much as he wanted to protect her, she was their ruler and would need to know these things.

'Still, this could serve our goals. With such a large group of their following out of country, it'll make things easier to move without detection. Still, I am curious as to how Zero will interpret this.' HE thought to himself as he didn't think that this would go the way the eunuchs wanted it, on the contrary actually, he saw it as a chance to eliminate a sizable portion of the eunuchs supporters and if Zero was as good as he believed him to be, then that goal could be achieved.

'Why must the eunuchs throw away so many lives? Don't they realise they those people have friends, family?' As he thought about the pros of so many dying, his empress thought about the human sacrifice that was about to happen. 'Why must so family people die just to sate their greed!'

'Soon, soon the people will have their freedom, their voices will be heard. I don't know if I can do it alone but….' She resolved, wiping away the forming tears from her eyes as they kept on moving forward. 'I'm not alone, as long as I have Xingke, I'll never alone.'

"Your Majesty?" Speaking of whom, it appeared that he was trying to get her attention.

"Hmm, sorry about that Xingke, I was distracted." She apologised to him with a bashful expression on her face, she was normally more alert.

"It is alright but you should know we're leaving the cleared zone, people could be listening in soon enough." Xingke reminded her as one of the guard picked on another clue to inform them.

"Okay." She nodded her head as she did some breathing exercises before she fell back into her 'role' as the timid empress as they left behind their safe zone. They kept up the conversation but only on topics that wouldn't warrant suspicion such as the weather and plays she had recently seen.

* * *

 **18** **th** **November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Northern Hokkaido:**

 **Black Knight Space port:**

"I hope you all packed, we're going to be gone for about two weeks." Zero announced to the group of his personal squad, Rakshata and her assistants, S.K, L.M as well as the Japanese that once made up the Wyvern unit. At present, they were located on one of the only spaceports on Earth.

"Yep, I got the memo, brought everything I'll need." Lockon replied as he moved to place his bag in an overhead bin. The cabin of the craft they were boarding was a mix of the average passenger plane and a private jet as there were leather seating, carpeting and even a couple sofas. One of which was taken by Rakshata.

"I as well." Tierra replied from his own seat, already reading one of his books.

"It was hard to get to much time for work but Marie was understanding enough to agree." Alleujah replied as he took a seat on one of free sofas.

"Don't worry, when we get back, you can spend as much time as needed to make it up to her," Lockon said as he took the seat next to the quiet member of their squad and placed an arm around his shoulders. "If you want, I can give you some pointers."

"Please don't." Alleujah asked as he tried and failed to keep the blush off his face as Lie Mei also decided to join in on the teasing and took the last free seat on the sofa.

"Do they ever stop?" Kallen asked herself as she took the free seat opposite Tierra so that they could both have window seats.

"I'm sad to say that they do not." Tierra replied as she kept on reading, turning the page as he kept the conversation going to try and drown out the rest of them. "How has your mothing been holding up?"

"Oh, I….She's she been doing as well as you can expect. The withdrawal symptoms are finally dying down." Kallen answered as she looked away as she visited her mother the night before at her rehab facility. It wasn't easy for her as the women was still struggling with basic things but they had been on the mend lately.

"That is good to hear, perhaps I shall pay her a visit one of these days." Tierra replied, keeping his tome crisp and respectful.

"I think she would appreciate it, she always did enjoy meeting anew person." Kallen answered as even if the calm man was at times, unnerving-she appreciate that he was trying to start conversations with her, when she joined, he would barely speak to her outside missions.

"Alright people, we'll be off the ground in a few minutes so take your seats." S.K stated as he took his seat next to L.M Akito seated with the rest of his old unit.

"Is there any particular reason why this was designed off a regular plane?" Sayama asked bluntly as he gestured to the whole thing.

"And that it is styled like a private jet?" Naruse added in as he went over some notes on his phone.

"To the first question, that was done so it could fly around and not draw suspicion since most wouldn't look past the fact that it's a plan in appearance and carry on thinking it was a plane." S.K answered his first question before he looked over the shorter male. "The second reason was due to this being a VIP shuttle, so it had features the regular ones do not."

"Sir, we're ready for take-off." They all heard the pilot report over the speaker.

"Proceed then." Zero ordered from his own seat, his posture that of a man who was in charge.

"How are we going to take off without a runway?" Alleujah asked as they facility was mainly underground. Hell, there wasn't much in the way of a runway but rather a launch tunnel that didn't even look 200m long.

"Look out the window and you're see." Zero replied as they all heard the engines powering up, out of curiosity, most of them looked out any window that could find and to their shock, they weren't even taking the short runway but rather the craft was starting to lift into the air as the roof above them started to open up, revealing door after door as they all soon saw the light of day shine through.

"Holy...This things a VTOL?" Kallen asked as she saw that they were rising through the opening to which soon enough, they had reached ground level before the craft started to power forward.

"Most of our craft are, even a large star destroyer can slow to a halt and take off and land like a copter." Zero stated as he reached for his own book as the craft suddenly increased in speed from the slow hover to a rate that kept in rising as they climbed higher and higher into the air.

"That's a kick." Lie Mei stated as the rapid increase of speed had forced them all into their seats. Soon they were flying through the clouds and from the look of it, they were still climbing, from where she stood, it appeared that they really were going to space.

"Well when you accelerate from 5 to 120km/h in two seconds flat, that kinda happens. Don't worry, you get used to it." S.K chuckled as he didn't even flinch or move as he looked at them all, it was extremely funny to him to see the big tough Sayama holding on to an equally frighten Kosaka like a couple a baby cubs.

"What's our cruising speed in this thing?" Lockon asked as they soon left the clouds and continued to rise in both speed and altitude.

"750km/h. If we to be trying to outrun or just get away from some threat as fast as we could, we would go about 875km/h." Zero replied from his seat.

"That's fast but not as fast as I thought." The sniper of the group muttered to himself as he recalled seeing rockets blasting off into space as a kid, they always flew much faster than that.

"Most craft like this one aren't built for use in atmosphere but the powerful engines can manage. You should see this baby in vacuum, which we should reach soon seeing how we've been flying in a steep climb." Zero told him, having heard his statement even from the other side of the plane over the hum of the engines as they propelled them.

"What will our speed be then?" Rakshata asked him, intrigued that they had design a craft as large as a private jet that could travel below the speed of sound and still break away from the earth atmosphere.

"Ha, we won't be going too fast seeing how we just need to break from the Earth's atmosphere, around 15,200km/h." Zero dropped the number like it was the normal speed of a city bus. Hell, most of those listening couldn't believe that they were going to accelerate to such a speed in the first place.

"What's how real destination? I thought we were going to Mars." Alleujah asked, having caught the fact that they were merely going out into space, not another planet.

"That is our endgame goal but not where he was heading right now. Right now, we're heading to see a surprise that was recently completed." Zero cryptically replied as he put his book away, seemingly done with it.

'A surprise?' S.K. thought to himself due to the fact as far as he knew, they were supposed to head straight to Mars via hyperspace.

"And what's that?" He asked aloud, trying to be patient with his old friend that always managed to give him a headache.

"Our new flagship of course." Zero told him, his tone telling them that he was smirking behind that helmet of his.

"What?" S.K stated, since when they have a flagship? They had sold the Harrower three years ago on the black market for cash.

"Just sit back and wait a couple minutes while we jump to hyperspace." Zero stated as he heard the quiet but familiar hum of the Hyperdrive charging up. Within moments, they jumped into the realm known as hyperspace, a tunnel like existence where all there was to see was white, black and blue. Such a sight was in a word: mesmerizing to everyone who was seeing such a sight for the first time.

'It's so….beautiful.' Kallen thought to herself as he felt herself get lost in such a sight. 'They travel like this?'

"Fascinating. How fast this this?" Rakshata asked, for once her ever present pipe missing from her mouth as she couldn't focus on that when she was front row and centre for a feat of engineering that put everything she ever created to shame.

"Hyperdrive allows vessels to move at speeds exceeding the speed of light, allowing one to travel vast distances that would normally take days if not weeks in minutes." S.K told them as he went on to explain that hyperspace itself was a separate realm of existence in a way, a zone that could only be entered by creatures or objects moving faster than light.

"The moon isn't too far so we should be exiting it soon." Zero stated, and just like that-they exited hyperspace moments and to their amazement, they could all spot the frickin Moon outside the windows. Rather than head right for it, it seemed like they were only flying around it, towards the other side.

"The ability to cross light-years in such a short amount of time, incredible. How small can this tech be made?" The Indian scientist probed, hungry for more after seeing and experiencing such an event. She felt like the people who just watched the Wright brothers take flight for the first time in human history.

"As far as I know, a good hyper-drive can be fitted to something as small as a fighter if need be, though I wouldn't recommend that for such a small craft." Zero answered her question, having predicted that there would be question to everything they see and do on this trip, it was natural for intelligent life to be curious after all.

"Energy concerns?" One of the aides spoke up, doing the calculations in his head and even though he couldn't be sure, the amount of power needed to sustain such a speed came back to a crazy amount.

"No, it's the fact that you can be travelling in hyper-space for hours if not a full day at a time if the distance you're covering is considerably large, I don't know about you but I don't enjoy just sitting in one spot for hours at a time." Zero stated as he always hated just sitting there for hours on end as he flew from one system to another in a cockpit of a star-fighter during his training days. At least flying through an asteroid field added a level of danger and excitement to it all.

"If one has the discipline, that wouldn't be such a bother." Tierra spoke up, finding his voice as he tore his attention away from the numerous craters that dotted the surface of the Moon.

"I suppose that is one way of looking at it but now isn't the time for a debate, we're here." Zero replied as they crossed into the dark side of the moon, meaning that they couldn't see much outside anymore.

"We're heading for the dark side?" S.K asked, having feint memories of what they saw on the dark side 10 years prior. What could they be hiding out here that warranted using the celestial body like the moon to hide it?

"Hehehe, why of course, where else would we construct our very own vessel." Zero stated/asked of his old friend who for his part, didn't immediately reply as he processed that.

"Construct? I thought we were just buying one?" S.K asked, showing that even he was in the dark about this.

"Oh that, that was the lie I told you two to keep the project on the down-low so when you found out," Zero said honestly, now sorry that he hid that from him. "You would be surprised." He finished as he spotted that other side where his little present was waiting for them.

"Hold up, when did you even…get….holy hell, what is that." S.K stuttered out as he looked onward and saw it. The others equally silent as they gape at the sight that awaited them.

And it was huge.

On the other side of the Moon, away from prying eyes on earth, lay a star destroyer like no other. It was dark blue with accents of black and white, shaped like a fine longsword than a dagger that Sith designs typically took, from their angle, they could spot the 8 massive thrusters that must have been moving the ship, even if six of them were much smaller than the larger two. The colour of the propulsion being exhausted was an eerie yellow that seem like mini suns. The main command bridge was close to the main body of the thing but still looked to be quite the distance from the rest of the hull.

"That," Zero started but paused for dramatic effect as they flew closer to it, letting them all see the dozens upon dozens of weapon's emplacements. Everything from massive turbolaser batteries that made them all think back to the main guns for their tanks to CIWS turrets and missile pods. "Is the flagship of our new navy, the Sakura class star destroyer. Its name: Sakura." Zero finished as they flew towards the bow of the ship, coming in from the front of it.

"Wait, like my mother?" S.K asked, seeing a possible connection there.

"Yes, your mother was the namesake of this beauty." Zero answered him, revealing that the present was that this machine of war was named for his mother. He wasn't too sure what to think about that but knowing his….unusual his best friend was, he just took it as it was.

"Jesus, that a lot of fire power." Lockon stated as they came in close for their landing down the middle of the ship, which itself opened up to reveal a trench like depression which seemed to have hangar bay doors running on either side.

"The thing is fitted with numerous turbo-lasers of varying sizes, missiles launchers for everything from anti-ship to CIWS, flak guns and a sophisticated CIWS system, all to ensure that this vessel can contend with the best of them and came out on top." Zero now openly bragged as they begun to rapidly slow down as they entered the depression like space.

"This is our destination? A space war-ship?" Alleujah asked aloud as they reached the end of the runway(?) where the largest hanger door was situated. In front of it was some kind of shield which powered down as they approached and the doors opened, allowing them excess.

"Of course, we're be staying on board for the next two days before we head to Mars. This ship is due to make her debut anyway, during Operation Island Getaway." Zero replied as they entered the large hanger bay, which was filled with activity from both organic and droids. Around them were other craft, some looking like fighters while other appeared to be gunship of some kind. Soon they found themselves parked and leaving the shuttle via its ramp.

"Are those robots?" Lie Mei asked as she pointed towards some white and yellow droids which were busy carrying some crates over a fighter that seemed to be under maintenance.

"Droids but yes, they are robots. They must make up the bulk of the crew." Zero answered her question as they all stepped off the ramp onto the metallic surface that made up the launch bay.

"Correct! You have no idea how long it took to create the perfect ship crewmen but the results," A bright, peppy and loud voice called out to them as s certain mechanic approached them before she gestured to the hangar as whole. "Show for themselves."

"Kaya?" S.K asked as he stepped forward to which the for once clean young lady stepped up to him and gave him a big hug.

"What's up lover boy, miss me?" She stated as she took in his musk that she had come to memorise, much like he had done to her. "I would so kiss you if not for that helmet, come on, why don't you take it off."

"And who is this?" Kallen asked as she gestured to the unnamed girl who had taken off S.K helmet without him even giving his consent, though he didn't seem to mind.

"Kaya Vesna, engineer and self-proclaimed super genius. She is the brains behind our knightmares, including our Stalkers models." Zero answered as he reached for his own helmet, even if Rakshata didn't know who he was yet, his secret identity paled in comparison to what they were standing in. when she heard her name being called, the attractive alien girl broke from her embrace with her lover and walked up to the Indian scientist and her little group.

"You must the this Rakshata that I've been hearing about, it's a pleasure." She said as she held out her hand towards the taller women who smirked as she gave the women a firm handshake of her own.

"Oh trust me dear, the pleasure is all mine." Rakshata replied as she kept herself in check, though she did have the urge to call Lloyd just to brag that she met an alien before he did but she wasn't nearly as petty and she had a pretty good guess that phone calls weren't allowed.

"I hear that you have some interesting creations, compact but efficient walkers?" Kaya asked as the two started to discuss what they did best, inventing and improving.

"Walkers?" Rakshata repeated. She figured she didn't mean what she thought but that meant she was drawing a blank here.

"She means the knightmares." Suzaku helped her out by clearing the confusion.

"Oh, yes I am quite proud of them, would you like to see some info of them in exchange for information on those Nightmare Tarantula you designed." Rakshata proposed, seeing a chance to see just how those machines were built as she had never been given permission to work on them before.

"Oh I like you already," Kaya said with a witty smirk "You have a deal."

"And what about the rest of us?" Leila asked as she too removed her helmet and gestured to the group as a whole.

"Oh one of the NC-02s can help you with that, isn't that right?" Kaya asked as she pointed towards one of the droids who just happens to be walking by, who noticed her pointing towards it before it marched on over.

"Roger, roger." The droid, which was different coloured to the rest as instead of white and yellow, was white and blue as well as cleaner. They also noticed that as the droid replied, Kaya along with Rakshata and her people walked on off, presumable to discuss science and engineering. "Welcome aboard the Starship Sakura. Would you all like the tour?" The droid inquired of them, sounding pleasant.

"Might as well seeing how those two will keep each other busy for a while." Leila stated as their boss took to the backseat of the group. "Lead the way."

"Yes sir. Right this way." The NC-02 unit replied as it lead them away from their craft as others moved in, likely to inspect it and hopefully retrieve their belongings. "Do you have any question?"

"How large is this vessel, from the outside it appeared to dwarf any man-made movable object I've ever seen." Tierra decided to speak up as the group reached one of the many blast doors that led into the hander bay.

"Oh it quite larger, even larger than the Harrower-class used by the Sith Empire. The vessel of 720m from bow to stern, has a beam of 180m at its widest point and is 153m tall." NC-02 replied to the question near instantly, being able to quickly access that information from its own central hard drive.

"How large a crew would a ship this size need?" Akito asked as they walked on by some fully geared troopers.

"That is the beauty of it. The vessel was designed to incorporate numerous droid brains to run many of the functions which limits the number of organics need to operate it. There were also a large number of droids on board meaning that it only needs around 630 organics, including pilots." The droid informed them as it gestured to a console where they could see two droids doing some work. Both were vastly different from NC-02 as where NC-02 was about 170cm in height, they were both only 145cm. Where NC-02 had a body type that was skinny but not frail, they had bulky and study. There was also the fact that their heads and chest both had what looked to be headlights built in.

"Pilots, you mean those other craft in the hanger bay?" Sayama asked as he had spotted a couple dozen GINNS just standing there in racks keeping them from falling over.

"Yes sir, the vessel isn't a carrier but it was one of the core tenants for the vessel to have its own strike craft and walkers." NC-02 replied to the question, seemingly showing the feeling of pride as it spoke about their combat capabilities.

"You mean knightmares." Kosaka corrected as she took note of how clean they place was, but then again-how much dirt could you make in space?

"Yes mam, knightmares. As it stands, we carry 60 fighters of varying roles, 15 shuttles such as the one you came with and 20 Bombers. There are also 30 knightmares on board." NC-02 informed them, revealing that this one vessel was loaded.

"Shit. This thing has enough gear to take entire bases." Lockon whistled as he could imagine the destruction this weapon of war could bring.

"Not true. The ship's armament was designed to be capable of orbital bombardments capable of destroying whole cities." However, that little fact put a pause on the group as they all paused in shock, this thing could do what?!

"Whole cities?! That's insane!" Kallen voiced the thought first. Why would you even need that kind of firepower!?

"Kallen, on the grander scale of things, entire planets operate like countries and cane control entire systems. For us, destroying a cities outside capitals isn't that big of a deal." Zero reminded her as they had already received the talk about the greater galaxy as a whole, to them-a settlement with numbers below one million was considered to be small and in most parts of the galaxy, the average city had it least 112 million.

"But wouldn't-" Leila tried to interject but found herself cut off.

"Kill millions. Leila, even a small conflicts between two planets can leave tens of thousands dead. After all, warships of this size tend to have crews in excess of 5,000 people." He stated as throughout galactic history, wars have been a near constant. Sure periods of peace could be found here and there that lasted for several decades but living creatures would always struggle and fight with one another. Besides, he wasn't like he was lying, a small naval engagement with just a few ships could leave up to 15,000 killed or wounded. When two planets fought for even a short time, they number could climb up to the hundreds of thousands if the Jedi didn't step in and resolve conflicts. "It's not something I enjoy but it's a possibility. Both the Republic and Sith have made use of orbital bombardments in the past so we can be sure if we were to trade blows, it could happen again." He explained as he didn't enjoy the thought of firing on whole cities and killing millions but when such things are honest possibilities, one must adapt.

"But it would take a lot of power to sink this vessel. The hull is protected by 45 inches worth of armour plating. We even have 4 shield generators on board." NC-02 stated as they group started to move again.

"That is comforting." Sayama muttered to himself as he didn't have the desire to die in the cod vacuum of space.

After that, they spend another two hours being shown around the massive vessel-from the mess hall, the fully stocked medical bay, the training area with a swimming pool and shooting range where the troops were firing blasters rather than slug throwers as was the collective noun for projectile firing weapons, the recreational areas for both officers and regular crew, the bridge, they even saw some of the weapon up close and personal as well many other facilities on board. Honestly the whole thing was quite the experience.

"And these are your quarters, sir." NC-02 stated as the droid gestured towards a door in one of the halls.

"For all of us?" Akito asked, not at all phased that they may all have to share.

"Negative, each of you are of officer level so you will have your own rooms. This is the room of the one known as Lockon Stratos." NC-02(they knew that wasn't its name but it was better then 'robot') corrected as the droid handed a set of keys to the sniper.

"See you all later, today been a real roller coaster so I'm gonna take a nap." Lockon said as he waved at them all and walked towards his door as the rest of them left in search of their own rooms.

'Never thought this would happen, what else are you hiding…Zero?' Lockon thought to himself as he walked into the decently designed and decorated officer quarters and threw his stuff on the bed before he collapsed into the seat by the desk, wondering what other crazy stuff they were yet to see.

* * *

 **Okay, that chapter ran longer than I thought it would but let's cut things here. Don't worry, they'll be some action in the next chapter as I wanted to put it in this one but I'm trying to keep the word count controllable for this story at least.**

 **On the bright side, I was finally able to reveal the Sakura class which no, isn't named after the Naruto character(the info on the thing will be available at the bottom of this page) You don't know how long I waited to reveal this beauty since back in chapter 1, I had only made enough plans to get to chapter 9 and was hoping that it would make an appearance prior to chapter 20 but I didn't take into account how much development both the world and the cast would need, so sadly I had to wait since adding more Star Wars stuff before it was ready would just confuse things.**

 **With the NC-02, the code stands for naval crewmen model 02. In terms of body type, think the separatist tactical droid but a little less bulky as they need units to act as their B1 battle units but not be completely useless. I get that they were made for comedic relive at times but come on, they were only over dangerous in confides spaces(most of the time) and in large numbers(but then again, anything can be dangerous with large enough numbers). The B2 super battle droids on the other hand, those things were monsters.**

 **In other news, Guilford's alive! Before you all start to ask how the hell he survived, when I said that his cockpit took damage, I never said how. If you want a clearer picture, just imagine what had happened to Cornelia's when the geassed Andreas throw his lance through it. It's a critical hit but not necessarily a fatal one. Though it did nearly give the princess a heart attack.**

 **Bismarck will also make an appearance soon but not in Area 11 as there would be no need for him to go seeing how his first duty is to be the emperor's bodyguard.**

 **How was the scene with the young empress though? I hope you all enjoyed it. I really wanted to show that things in the federation aren't the same as cannon as the eunuchs haven't had the bright idea to basically prostitute their underage empress away to the Britannians yet and no, I'm not calling Odysseus a lolicon as maybe he chose the wedding as a way to join the two countries without bloodshed, it wasn't like they were Vikings where they would have to sleep together before the elders check the bed to ensure she was pure or something. He could easily have done what I made Lloyd do in this one and treat the marriage as nothing more than a business agreement.**

 **I also wanted to show that the empress had nothing to do with the navel fleet planning to attack Japan, something that Kaguya would have passed along to the rest of Kyoto as well as the Black Knights and JLF.**

 **When it came to the numbers of people and casualty counts, I can't imagine that a universe as expanded as the Star wars wouldn't have such large numbers as here on earth, different settlements are controlled by population(among other factors) so making it so 'small' settlements have such a large number would make sense. My home town had a populations of only 850K so we wouldn't even be on most maps. The casualty count came from the fact that in Star Wars, those large ships have very large crews as according to Wookiepedia(the official star wars wiki), a single Venator-class Star Destroyer had a crew of 7,400. In the first season of the CGI Star Wars: The Clone Wars, we see 8 ships of that line destroyed-even though we know that not all of them went down all hands, that still gives a death toll of 59,200**

 **Think about that number for a minute, by just losing eight ships, you lose 59,200 clones, officers and any other personal on board. Hell in the episode where R2 goes missing, Obi-wan reports that prior to Anakin engaging Grevious, they lost another battle group and even though he don't know how large a battlegroup is, we see throughout season 1 that the republic tends to send Venators in groups of three, so if that's a battle group, that would mean another 22,200 lives lost if things were really bad. It's for that reason I doubt the fact that the clone army was only 200,000 strong in the first year of the war as that would be too small a number to effectively split clones between ground units and a navy that's goal is to fight a galactic civil war as that would mean losing even a single Venator could be crippling to the Republic war effort.  
And no, I don't count the sparty clones(I don't care if that's the right spelling or not) as they make no sense as with the originals like Cody, Fives and Rex, it is explained that they age twice the normal rate as humans so that they are battle ready sooner as at age nine, they have the bodies of 18 years old. Yes, this is a long period to wait but it also means that these troops have bene given the best training possible as they spend like 8 years of their lives learning, practicing and training to be soldiers, the only down side being that there is no way of slowing down their aging process which means by the time they are 25, they have reached the age where they should retire from the armed forces. Sparty clones are reportedly grown much faster, reaching 18 in a year, wouldn't that mean that they age 18 times as fast as normal people? If your that pressed for troops, for the love of God, just use droids. It wouldn't be slavery, it would be far more humane and each droid would cost a fraction of a fully trained clone.**

* * *

 **Sakura class Star dreadnought**

 **Class Overview**

 **Name: Sakura Sumeragi**

 **Namesake: Suzaku's mother's maiden name**

 **Operators: Black Knights Navy**

 **General Characteristics**

 **Type: Star Destroyer**

 **Length: 720m(2,362ft)**

 **Beam: 180m(590ft)**

 **Height: 153m(501ft**

 **Decks: 45**

 **Installed power: 2 Hydra firm D17 Rhydonium Reactors; 4 Sakuradite Mass Yggdrasil Reactors**

 **Propulsion: 2 large thrusters; 6 small thrusters**

 **Speed:  
Maximum Acceleration: 2,400G  
Atmospheric Cruising Speed: 258 knots/477km/h  
Maximum Atmospheric Speed: 345 knots/638km/h  
Vacuum Cruising Speed: 11,000 knots/20,372km/h  
Maximum Vacuum Speed: 13,400 knots/24,816km/h**

 **Hyperdrive Rating: Class 2.5**

 **Range: 11,500 light years/108,798,400,439,500,000,000km**

 **Endurance: 1.5 years' worth of supplies**

 **Complement: 16 Officers; 480 Enlisted Men; 140 Pilots  
636 Total**

 **Sensory equipment: Short-ranged: 237km (147.26mi) and below; Medium-ranged: 222km (137.94mi) – 9,324km (5,793.66mi); Long range: 9,300km (5,778mi) – 24,150km (15,006.11mi); I.F.F transponder and receiver; 360** **o** **Medium ranged thermal cameras; 360** **o** **High cameras and infrared imaging sensors**

 **Armament:**

 **Primary Weapons**

 **24 x Duel 38cm Heavy Turbolasers batteries**

 **16 x Duel 30m Heavy Turbolasers batteries**

 **6 x Single 12-cell 475mm SSM(Ship-to-Ship Missile) VLS**

 **4 x Single 10-cell 355mm SSM(Ship-to-Surface Missile) VLS**

 **Secondary Weapons**

 **4 x 29cm Heavy Ion cannons batteries**

 **12 x 25cm Heavy Turbolasers batteries**

 **12 x Duel 150mm Medium Turbolaser guns batteries**

 **12 x Duel 128mm Medium Turbolaser batteries**

 **Tertiary Weapons**

 **24 x 95mm Light Turbolaser guns**

 **10 x Single 14-cell 135mm SAM(Ship-to-Air Missile) VLS**

 **14 x 45mm Anti-Air Revolver Blaster cannon**

 **Point Defence Weapons**

 **18 x 40mm Close-in-weapons system Heavy Blaster cannons**

 **16 x 35mm Close-in-weapons system rotary cannons**

 **8 x 6-cell 95mm Close-in-weapons missile system**

 **6 x 6-cell 80mm Close-in-weapons missile system**

 **Armour: Hull: 45 inches/114.3cm Reinforced Dura Steel plating; Belt armour: 38.42 inches/97.58cm Reinforced Dura Steel plating; Deck: 25.38 inches/64.47cm Reinforced Dura Steel plating; Gun turrets: 13.72 inches/34.85cm Reinforced Dura Steel plating; Bulkheads: 9.98 inches/25.35cm Reinforced Dura Steel plating**

 **Aircraft Carried: 60 fighters; 15 Shuttles/Helicopters; 20 Bombers**

 **Knightmares Carried: 30 Knightmare frames**

 **Aviation Facilities: 340m x 70m runway; 2 x catapults**

 **Shielding: 4 Heavy duty shield generators**

 **The Sakura-class Star dreadnought or more infrequently known as the Sakura-class Star Dreadnought, is a heavily armed capital ship of the Black Knights(Among other things) Navy. Although not built to the number of many other fractions it served as the main attack force and backbone of the Black Knight naval strategy.**

 **Description**

 **As there is no information about Suzaku's mother in cannon so I had to be a little creative with the name. The name Sakura was chosen because Sakura is the mother to Haru Glory from Rave Master manga and anime. Haru is voiced by Yuri Lowenthal in the English dubbed release and Yuri also voices Suzaku in the English release for Code Geass. Her last name was Sumeragi due to the fact that Suzaku and Kaguya are cousins in cannon and due to the fact Genbu last name was Kururugi, we can safely conclude that he wasn't related by blood to Kaguya so it makes sense that there were related through Suzaku's mother.**

 **A large dreadnaught that was approximately 720m meters in length, 180m meters in width, and 153m meters in height, the Sakura-class dreadnought—also known as the Sakura-class Star Destroyer. This gave the Sakura-class shaped more like a streamlined shape more akin to a broadsword then the wedge-shaped design which is a staple of Sith design. The "point" or bow of the Sakura-class's wasn't split down the middle for a quarter to a third of the length of the ship like a Harrower-class but rather the runway/catapult which runs down a 15m depression run down the middle of the vessel from 45m short of the bow to around a little over half of the ship's total length which is protected/covered by a 12-inch blast roof and ray shielded when not in use(Think the same Hanger configuration as the Venator-class Star destroyer the republic used). The large hanger bay, the four large hanger doors were built with two of each side of the runway and are protected by 9-inch blast doors and force fields to keep atmosphere. A final and smaller hangar is located on the underbelly of the dreadnought and is mainly used for small VIP craft.**

 **The Sakura-class Star Dreadnought sported armour that was on average 38-inches think and was equipped with 6 heavy shield generators. Two of the ship's shield generators protected the upper hull while another was reserved for the hanger and runway, another pair protected the lower hull while one shield generator covered each of the sides of the ship. This along with its think armour plating made this vessel type the most heavily protected till the age of the Galactic Empire and the construction of the Imperial class Star destroyers. The ship was armed with turbolaser batteries, laser cannons, ion cannons, Anti-air and Anti-ship missile launching systems/platforms and CIWS defence turrets. Most Sakura-class dreadnoughts had two primary thrusters surrounded by six smaller ones located at the rear of the ship.**

 **The placement of the guns and missile bays also somewhat mimics real life modern destroyers and battleships of old with the main guns either facing front or back with the smaller guns either on the sides, above the larger main guns(as seen with the Yamato-class battleship) or on the sides of the main body. Because of the placement of the armaments, all sides of this massive vessel are covered by at least two of them granting it the ability to rain blaster bolts, missile, shells or bullets on any target no-matter their own position, if they're in range, they can be hit. However, the armaments are not mounted down the centre like a conventional destroyer or battleship as the centre acts as the runway for knightmares and other craft to take off and land from. Because of this, the main armaments are mounted to the sides, above the lower runway.**


	31. Prelude to Invasion

**Okay, the ball is really starting to roll with this story. Things are heating up and plans long since drawn are about to be realized. The end of the Area 11 arc is approaching and should arrive in about 4 or 5 more chapters. After that, we have another arc planned. The Federation arc.**

 **Blaze1992: Oh yes, the climax of this part of the story is drawing near. The federation's attack itself will be an interesting chapter, which will affect the rest of the story afterwards but it won't happen till next chapter. This one will be shorter than most but that because I don't plan to show off much. Only the most mad of lads can attempt and succeed in controlling chaos….Lelouch is one of those lads but no, he had already accounted to it and will use it to his advantage in another way.**

 **Vein Bloodborne: Well it was something that I had wanted to introduce for a while now, there was even a Star Wars x Code Geass crossover I read that was based post requiem. Long story short, the sith empire invades, Suzaku proves to be a terrible leader, the earth is conquered, somehow Darth Kreia, I think, brought back Lelouch from the dead and has taken him as her apprentice so that they may one day take on the Sith. One scene I found funny as heck was when C.C and Kreia talk like old friends. As for your suggestion, I've watched them along with most of Pandora, gotta say it was a good anime. Leon could be Lloyd's brother with how he acts.**

 **x-x-TheBurnedMan-x-x: Not until the second story, they has more content about the galaxy as a whole. Though the Sakura will see action in this first story.**

 **Tf330129: I will.**

 **Xealchim: Hehehehehehe, the thought of reducing Pendragon and the surrounding area to a carbon copy of the surface and Mandalore is tempting…maybe.**

 **Jetzer0: Not true. The mind trick just isn't effective against those who have trained for years to resist its effects and certain species like the huts, though cannon is inconsistent as in some cases, it can work on anyone so long as the user is strong willed and has a deep connection to the force.**

 **With Geass, we only ever see it used on people, I once had a thought that could you use it on animals, like Lelouch could command dogs with just a look as dogs can understand human speech, how else would you train them? Once more, we never see anyone, even in the geass order they don't try to train to be resistant to geass, they just….go with it as we saw that both Euphemia and Nunnally resisted his absolute geass command to an extent before it took out, Nunnally broke her father's geass that left her blind….by using her determination to stop Lelouch along with her hatred for her him and what she thought he was planning to do….man, that one must have hurt when he put to two and two together-years of love, nothing-one mouth of hate-success. The point is, it's not impossible for someone to resist geass, if they trained and understood what geass was, they may very well achieve that.**

 **Geer123: Who doesn't want to go to space? Thanks for the compliment, there's another one in this scene.**

* * *

 **Chapter 31: Prelude to Invasion.**

 **27** **th** **November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Area 11:**

 **Kanto region**

 **Chiba Prefecture**

(Earlier)

"Troops, you've all been selected for this mission. Here is the briefing." Their commanding officer spoke to a room with 30. That same room was the mission briefing room on-board one the few Black Knights submarines operating in eastern Japanese waters. Thanks to cutting edge stealth tech and noise cancelling equipment built into the very structure of the vessel, they were as invisible to sonar as they were to the naked eye when submerged. Which they were, at a depth of about 85m.

"Yes sir!" Each and every trooper replied, having been chosen for their skills and experience, their fledgling Special Forces unit. Once they all sat down in their seats, he darkened the lights and showed them the first slide on the wall mounted screen.

"Factories….sir?" One the troopers in the front asked as she took in the images from both satellite and shots from ground level taken by scouts and spies.

"These productions sites supply the occupational government with VTOL and gunships parts. These plants alone are responsible for over half of their manufacturing capacity in Area 11." He relayed to them what they had found out about their target. "Your job is to destroy them."

"Yes sir, we'll get this done." Another trooper spoke up, sounding sure of himself. Confidence was a good trait, but arrogance was one he hated to see in a soldier, he hoped that this man was the former rather than the later.

"Remember that even though this isn't a military base, they will still be armed guards, maybe a knightmare or two. For reasons you all know, we can't just blow them up wholesale, but you will have assistance." He reminded them as the submarine was carrying missiles, weapons that they could even fire from depths as deep as 30m but then they would also be revealing that they can and could possibly do it again. They simply didn't have the numbers to contend with the navy actively searching for them. Not without screwing with the plan that command created and say what you want about Zero….

You never screw with his plans without good reason.

"Knightmares?" Another asked, only for their commander to shake his head no.

"A UAV, loaded with AGMs." He replied as he showed them the details of the UAV they would be loaded for this operation and from the stats, it was impressive. With a cruising speed of 215km/h and a combat altitude of 12,500m, the thing would be near undetectable by anything on the ground. The 15 AGM missiles were also a good plus.

"Eyes in the sky. Looks like we got it set." Another trooper joked, getting some laughs from a few others.

"You will be provided with a new type of explosives. One of which is this, a thermal detonator." The CO stated as he held up what looked to be a metallic looking cup….thing.

"Seems pretty small. Wouldn't plastic explosive work better?" One person asked, having been trained with plastic explosives of most types, they were expecting what they were used to.

"They look small, I admit but they have about the same explosive force as 8kg worth of C4." The officer informed them as he had seen first-hand how powerful these things were. They would prove quite useful now.

"Shit, that'll ruin someone's day." One muttered.

"You'll also be equipped with these, IHG-05 Incendiary Hand Grenades. They work like thermite so plant them in locations where they'll start really big fires." He went on as he held up what looked to be large spray bottles without nozzles and in their place, triggers.

"Let's hope we can find a fuel depot then."

"Or a motor bay." Another joined as they all darkly chuckled at the kind of destruction they would be leaving in their wake.

"Store it. You 30 have a mission, I expect success." The ranking officer cut them off before they could start discussing, leaving them only the option to shut up and salute like proper men and women in uniform.

"Yes sir!"

"Good, you deploy in 4 hours, I hope you all have gotten familiar with your jetpacks, because that's how you getting in, dropships will only fly in to pick you up." He told them as he left the room, so that the squad commanders could discuss the mission details with them, locating where they will drop in, where they can plant their explosives and where they can get the hell out of there once things are done.

* * *

(Then)

"Check you gear, we begin in 10." The trooper heard one of her fellow commandoes speak up she did final checks on all her weapons and gear. For combat gear, they weren't just equipped but were equipped with the latest that their R&D department cooked up, which meant that there were outfitted with full body gloves that were temperature regulating, comfy, form-fitting and grey and white in colour, to aid in blending into the snow and ice.

Over that they were ballistic plate looking armour that they were told could take up to 10 rounds from standard rifle before that piece of armour failed. They were all wearing armour protecting their shins, knees, thighs, groin, chest, shoulders and forearms. Like the body glove, they were also camo but with more white patches then grey, apparently to make it harder to distinguish them as a singular shape from afar in the same fashion that a zebra's stripes do. It also come with webbing so that each person can carry their own weight and gear, though, the guys meant to plant the bombs had to carry backpacks carrying 6 Demolition Thermal Detonators and 6 Incendiary Grenades each.

But what really impressed her was the helmet. It wasn't like anything she had ever seen. It resembled the full head helmets used by armoured knights and samurai of the past but was much more….comfortable to wear and quick to both remove and put on, the padding on the inside was major plus as now, blows to the head wouldn't hurt so much. The bowtie shaped visor offered great field of vison and was made from a tough, tilted bullet resistant transparent material so even if one of them were unlucky enough to get in the face, the bullet wouldn't get through. The tilted part gave the visor the same properties as one way glass, so you could see through it just fine but one couldn't see shit on the other side of it.

That wasn't even the best part. All of them were equipped with night-vision and binoculars built into the helmet, all one had to do was push a button and the secondary visor would fall over their regular one, allowing them to see with night-vison or spy on a person or object as far away as 3,500m. That combined with a built in radio for the squads to keep in contact with each and great sound pick-up for your surroundings, made this helmet her new best friend.

'Our first deployment with these things.' She thought to herself as she placed her combat/survival knife into her right thigh holster and then her silenced FN Five Seven onto the holster on her other leg. 'Let's see what they can do.' She finished the though as she picked up her silenced Vepr was loaded and ready before making sure she had the extra 6 clips of ammo for firmly holstered to her person. She would hate to have to bum off another one of her team.

"Remember, the snow will give us great cover but don't be an idiot." Her squad leader reminded them as he held his rifle over his shoulder. Like the rest of them, they were standing on top of the sub as it cruised towards their start point, far enough away not to be spotted but close enough so that their jetpacks can carry them the distance. That's right, they were equipped with jetpacks. Soon enough, they found themselves on the move, blasting off the sub and flying towards their location, making sure they stayed closed to the water and flew in from an area that didn't have a lot of people to see them coming.

* * *

(Now)

" **That's our target**." Her squad leader called out over the radio as they silently flew out of the fog and into the clearer view of the plant.

" **It's bigger than a thought it'll be**." One of her teammates mentioned as they saw that it wasn't just a couple buildings but more along the lines of dozen or so, spread out over a large area with some buildings being really big, like big enough to house a jumbo jet for maintenance big.

" **What were you expecting, it's a production complex, meaning more than one building**." She teased him as they all kept an eye out for anyone that could spot them, even with their camo and approach directions, they weren't taking chances. If they were seen, they were to either take them down or take them out before any kind of alarm could be raised.

" **Shut up**."

" **Coming up on our first way point**." One the forward troops spoke up, a sniper going by the fact he was carrying silenced accuracy International AWM. " **No signs that they see us coming**." He finished as he pulled out a thermal imaging scope and looked around for anything living, finding none.

" **Good, let's try to keep it that way**." The squad leader told them as they kept on flying for a couple minutes, going slower than normal to help keep the noise their jetpacks made to a minimum. Once they were within sight of commercial buildings close to the sight, they knew they had reached the first way-point.

" **Alright, this is where we split. Gotta find good spots to watch from**." One of the snipers called out as he along with a trooper parted ways from the group and made their way to the rooftop of one of the building due to the fact, like other pre-selected sites, it was a great place to be over-watch and assist their comrades on the ground. The trooper that went with them was just there to watch their backs.

" **Copy**." The squad leader said as they kept on going. As they flew around the base, keeping out of sight, more snipers left the group once they were close to their drop-points. Cutting their numbers down by 12. Once this was done, the remaining all bunched up into their infiltration teams.

" **Alright, we spilt up here. Good luck**." One of the other squad leaders stated before their team broke away from group and flew towards their entry point, the other two not far behind as they all were the only ones to stay on course.

" **Same to you, try to get back alive**." Another joked as they all went radio silent. They didn't stay airborne for long and soon they found themselves on the ground, using the early morning snow-fall and the shadows as cover as they slowly made their way through the empty industrial area towards their destination. They entered a small patch of trees and when they reached the end, they paused, as on the other side of the road, lay their entry point into the facilities. A chain-link fence with happened to be blind-spot between security cameras.

'Showtime.' She thought to herself as she calmed herself down before pressing a button on the side of her helmet, so they the binoculars slid in front of her visor, allowing her to scout ahead for anything out of the ordinary.

" **SR6, you good?** " One of her squad mates asked as they kept their weapons trained on the other side of the road while two others made sure no-one was coming up either way of the road.

" **I'm good. Let's get this done**." She replied before she slid the binoculars off her visor and looked towards her leader. " **I'm not picking up any movement**."

" **I confirm. No-one's in our way**." SR Leader/SR1 stated as he allowed his own visor to slide back up as well as he lead the way across the street. Once they all made it, SR6 along with another took out wire-cutters and went to work making a hole large enough for them to all go through.

" **Copy, let's move**." SR1, squad leader said as he lead them through the opening, with the last one through picking up the cut out metal mess and putting it back in place, using the snow to hold it up so that no-one would notice unless they looked closely.

" **Clear. Move up**." SR1 ordered as they all went along in a single file line, hugging the sides of buildings and avoiding open areas. More than once, they would smell the sight of cigarettes and cooked meals. Hinting that the guard they didn't see were inside, safe from the cold.

" **Hold**." SR1 held up his arm as they reached a corner, one that hide them from view behind a generator that just sat there, humming as it powered the building next to them. With another gesture, SR5 moved up and observed what SR1 was looking. " **Patrol, to the right. Two guards, no visible rifles or shotguns**." He let the rest of them know as they spied two men in uniforms guarding what looked to be entrance to a storage facility.

" **Take them out or left them be**?" SR5 asked, her sights already lined up with one of their heads.

" **Let them be. SC1, they any more this side**?" SR1 asked the sniper that was watching over them.

" **None that I can see, but be careful**." SC1 reported back as he used his scope to check the whole area and aside from those two, they weren't any visible guards he could make out.

" **Roger, follow me, we're slip right passed them**." SR1 told them as they went down a different path, one that like SC1 reported, had no guards or workers to see them. They then continued through the site, using the noise from the air conditioning units pumping in warm air into buildings and generators to mask themselves whenever someone was near. Like ghosts, they moved unseen or heard. This continued till they reached a small courtyard they had to cross to get to their destination. On one of the balcony's overseeing it was a nightshift workers, looking down at the place as he took a cigarette out of his pocket and tried to light it.

" **Hold it, someone just got on the balcony for a smoke, get ready for the body**." SC1 reported in as he honed in his scope, right at the man's neck, so that when it hit, he wouldn't be any to speak or call for help.

" **Copy**." SR1 radioed back and a few moments later, they saw the man get shot, he gasped for air as he tried to stem the bleeding from the gaping neck wound but soon fell over the edge, dead before he hit the snow.

" **Moving**." SR3 and herself said as they quickly crossed the distance and grabbed the body and started to drag it to a corner. " **Quick, hide the body**." She told her squad mate who nodded his head before they quickly covered up the body in snow before covering up their bloody trail with snow as well. Now on-one will find him till morning, if this place is still standing that is.

" **SR leader, checking in. Status**." SR1 called in as they all made their way out of the courtyard and further into the complex.

" **SB leader, we're found a fuel depot, rigging the explosives to blow as we speak, over**." One team reported in as their explosive ordnance specialist rigged two thermal detonators to a couple large fuel reserves. Sure they were mostly made from concreate but there were weaker, metallic parts that stuck out, like the hatch that is opened and closed whenever cleaning needed to be done. Which was serving them just fine as it meant that the charge could be placed on the inside of the lid, unseen and once it blew, force multiplication did the rest.

" **SY leader, we've been delayed, knightpolice. Haven't been spotted as of yet, over**." Another reported in as they hide behind a building from a group of knightpolice having a break. One of whom was still in the cockpit of his knightmare.

" **SE leader, on route, about to enter a warehouse now, over**." The third team reported as they reached a warehouse where they believed spare parts were stored. While all this was going on, SR team was still moving towards their own goal, reaching in less than a minute.

" **Alright, this is the place**." SR leader said as he opened the door into the repair workshop, what they found were a few workers but before they could even speak, all seven found themselves shot and killed. No distractions could be allowed. " **Plant them**." SR leader ordered as he lowered his weapon while the rest of the squad got to work. The EOS(explosive ordnance specialist) went about placing charges on vehicles, structural support pillars, half built gunships and even in other parts of the building, nothing was over-looked. Others made sure to keep their eyes and ears open, keeping watch in case more showed up. The last moved the bodies to a back-room that should survive the blast and consequential fires, at least then, the bodies would be in a condition where they can be identified.

" **You guys better hurry up. Looks like they're looking for some of the people we dropped**." SC1 informed them as he picked up increased movement at the location they shot someone, clearly they had noticed his disappearance.

" **SB leader, we've planted our charges by the fuel depot, moving towards the secondary engine workshop**." SB leader reported in as her unit made their way towards a workshop that intelligence said housed parts for Gunships engines and spare parts.

" **SY leader, we managed to get passed the knightpolice, planting charges now**." SY reported as they planted their charges on some power relays from the main lines coming into the place.

" **SE leader, warehouse was a bust, I repeat. Warehouse was a bust, proceeding to motor pool to plant charges**." SE called in as they moved towards the secondary target, having checked out the empty warehouse.

" **SR leader, charges planted. Proceeding to power station now**." Their own EOS had reported that he had placed the thermal detonators in place and set them all to his commander's remote switch.

" **Be advised, I'm seeing a lot of activity in the power station. Recommend caution**." SC1 radioed on as they used their thermal scope and could more than a few people inside, most likely workers on the night shift.

" **I got some bad news. Incoming motorcade is heading towards main gate. Size is 5 vehicles. One limo and 4 escorts**." SC2 reported in as SB unit paused around the building as they observed the headlights of incoming cars

" **Anything else?** " SR asked as they moved along to their next destination.

" **Knightmares are escorting it, 2 knightpolice and 3 presumable privately owned and operated sunderlands**." SC2 called in as the motorcade came closer to the facility before it was let in the front gate.

" **Must be the plant owner**." One of the members of the SB stated as they quietly observed as the vehicles drove off away from them. That was good, less chances to be seen.

" **The hell is he doing back here so early in the morning?** " One of the members of SR squad. It was nearly 3 in the goddamn morning for crying out loud.

" **She, and I don't know. All teams be advised. Extra security is inbound. Stay out of sight**." SR leader corrected as the plant owner was a women while also cutting the chatter as they kept on moving.

" **Copy**." Everyone on the line replied as it was silent for another few minutes. Along the way, SR squad had to take out another 4 people, one of which a plant worker who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had seen them.

" **Power station in sight. Any new updates?** " SR leader asked their sniper support as they all hide behind a small shed.

" **Activity still high. Wait,** " SC1 paused as he saw movement on the roof and when he zoomed in, he could clearly make out three distinct human figures. One further away from the other two. " **I see three people on the roof, one's too close to the edge, they might see you**."

" **Can you take her out?** " SR6 asked, not in a position to see the targets in question.

" **Yes, but the other two might scream before I can shoot them. Should I take the shot?** " SC1 asked as he aligned his sights onto the upper chest area of the furthest one, that way when he had to switch to the other two, it wouldn't be too hard.

" **Do it**." SR ordered as they then waited a moment, after that, they heard a faint scream before that too went dead.

" **Was there a scream?** " SC1 asked, reloading his sniper as he spoke. The spent clip falling into the snow.

" **Not a loud one, but chances are someone is gonna go up there and find the bodies**." SR leader replied as they moved up till they reach a service entrance.

" **Meaning we need to move**." SR4 spoke up as she took out some bolt cutters and cut through the padlock and chain keeping the door closed. Once that was done, they all entered the building, all while closing the door behind them and kicking the cut chain and lock aside and covering it with some snow for good measure.

" **SE Leader, we have arrived at the motor pool, the motorcade has also arrived**." SE reported as they reached a rather large area with over a dozen trucks. Trucks that would make excellent tinder for their bombs as they went about planting their remaining charges underneath as many of the vehicles as they could. While that happened, a portion of the team kept eyes on the plant owner's motorcade as it drove right on past them, not seeing them due to the lack of lights in the area.

" **What's happening?** " SR6 asked as her team navigated the building till they reached a staircase that took them to the 2nd floor.

" **They are heading towards the main building. They didn't spot us**." SE replied as they kept a careful eye of the knightmare escorts. They wouldn't have been an issue if they were equipped with rockets or missiles but they were deemed too heavy for this mission. Meaning that they would only win a fight with one if the pilot was really stupid or is they had the luck of the devil in spades.

" **SB leader, we have arrived at the engine workshop, there was some people inside but we took care of them. Planting charges now**." SB reported as the unit leader stood over the corpse of a guard and his dog. Around them were four others corpses, all of which didn't even have the chance to fire a single shot. At present, they were planting both thermal detonators and incendiary grenades on every large piece of equipment or half-finished engine block they could. They even found some gas canisters and added them to the mix.

 **Boom!**

" **What the hell?** " SR6 asked as they all heard that feint explosion in the distance. Were one of the bombs found?

" **What the hell was that? I didn't give the command to detonate yet**." SR leader demanded as they all then picked up the sounds of a shoot-out on the other line.

" **We're been spotted! Currently in a fire fight**." SE leader reported in as they found themselves caught by a random group of guards, now the whole place knew they were here and chances are, were advancing on them.

" **Is anyone near to them?** " SR leader asked as they reached their own destination. The main control room for the plant. So as their unit and overall mission commander found out more, they set about placing their remaining charges.

" **Negative. Fastest ETA, 3 minutes if they run into the guards**." Command spoke up for the first time since the mission started.

"Intrude-pa!" One unfortunate worker got out before he was shot through the chest by SR6 for walking in on them, sadly, the damage was done.

"What was that?" They heard people outside asking before they made out the sounds of them bolting as they ran to the door and looked down the hallway, seeing on the foot of someone as they ran down a corner.

"Are they more? Call security. Alert the police!" They now all heard that one, they also heard the alarm for the place sounding.

" **Shit, looks like we're fighting our way out**." SR3 said as he checked his weapon before he got ready to defend the room, he may only be armed with a shotgun but in these close spaces, that was a boon.

" **Now that the cat out of the bag remember, only shot those who can shot back, plant workers are now off limits**." SR leader ordered them as now they didn't have to worry about not being seen.

" **Roger**." They all replied before their EOS told them he was done and that the bombs had been set, underneath the main control panel which he had covered by putting the panel back in place. " **Alright people, get the hell outta the way! Move it!** " SR leader told them as they made a tactical retreat back the way they came by around a corner, they found themselves spotted by a trio of armed guards.

" **Terrorist**!" One of them with an actually rifle yelled as he brought the thing to bar, forcing them to fall back lest get shot.

" **Take them down!** " Another commanded as the other two pulled out their pistols and opened fire.

" **Not bad….or overpaid mall cops**." SK6 mocked as she took a pot shot round the bend and was able to kill one right off the bat with a burst to the chest. Idiots weren't even taking cover, not that there was any in an open hall.

" **Kinda feel bad for them**." One of them said as this was turning out to be so easy.

" **Don't. They knew what they were getting into**." SR leader said as he pulled out a flashbang, pulled the pin and through it down the hall. The bang and confused, pained shouts telling them it worked as the unit commander turned around and finished off the two men on the floor. " **Status**." He requested as they made their way out of the building the same way they came.

" **SE leader, knightpolice have found us! Requesting immediate air support**." They heard SE call out, along with the sounds of large calibre weapons firing.

" **SE leader, this is Shadow 1, air support aid in ready and waiting, can you paint the target?** " The trooper in charge of their UAV requested as he altered the cruising course of the craft to better target the last known location of SE team.

" **Roger**." SE5 replied as she took out a laser pointer and aimed the bean towards the further knightmare bearing down on them.

" **Target locked, firing**." The UAV operator replied as he locked onto the target, released the safety, transferred camera feed to the missile before firing. Sending down a missile at nearly the speed of sound crashing down on his target.

 **BOOM!**

Was the deafening sound of the impact made by the missile striking close to home as it may have missed the knightmare by a few cm but it was still close enough that the blast tore its legs to pieces and damaged the cockpit block.

"Get down!" One person yelled as they tackled their boss to the ground just in time to avoid being shot.

"Thanks." SR leader said as he along with SR2 quickly got back up and continued the fight.

" **Go to sleep, little man**." SR6 said as she found the shooter and put one between his eyes.

" **Knightmare!** " Someone called out just as one appeared.

" **Get to the roof!** " Another yelled as they all bolted, taking to the skies with their jetpacks before landing on the roof. Giving themselves some breathing space.

" **Shadow 1, this is SR leader, requesting air support. Painting target**." SR leader relayed as he pointed his own laser designator towards the glasgow trying to shoot apart the roof to get to them while the rest of his men fired on the infantry.

" **SR leader, this is Shadow 1. Target locked and firing**." The UAV operator replied as the net missile was made ready and fired. This time striking one knightmare head on and blowing it to hell. Seeing an opening, they took it, flying off towards the exfil location.

" **Heads up, I've spotted police reinforcement on the way, ETA 50 seconds**." Shadow 1 informed them as he spotted some police and military vehicles making their way over.

" **Shit, what are their numbers?** " SR leader asked as they landed some distance from the power-plant and opted to run the remainder of the distance.

" **5 knightpolice units and 6 police cruisers**." Shadow 1 replied just as SR5 shot some guy who tried to get the jump of them.

" **Alright people, head to your emergency exfil locations. We don't need to stick around**." SR leader ordered everyone as all around, they could make out the sounds of gunfire and missile strikes from above.

" **Roge-Shit! I'm hit, I'm hit**." SB leader cursed over the line.

" **All squads, this is SB2, taking command of SB**." SB2 stated as they could make out someone dragging SB leader to his feet.

" **Is your commander alright?** " SR6 asked as they kept up the pace, never slowing down even if they had to not properly aim at their targets. They just needed them to keep their heads down long enough for them to pass by them.

" **She took one to the arm, it's appears to be a flesh wound. Making our way to the exfil site now**." SB3 reported as he looked over the bullet wound to the unit commander's bicep. Leaving him only able to fire with the side arm accurately. At that same moment, a member of SR got hit in the chest with two shots from a rifle and fell to their back, but found that it didn't hurt nearly as much as they thought it would as they was able to get back up pretty easily. When they spared a glance down to the armour, they saw dents but nothing else.

" **Thank god this stuff is tough**." The squad member laughed it off as they got back to shooting anything shooting at him.

" **Don't let it go to your head, first rule of combat is not to get hit**." SR leader warned them as he reloaded his rifle.

" **Don't have to tell me twice**." The squad member muttered over the line as they pick out a flash grenade the tossed it, blinding the remaining foes for them to blast them apart as they ran. As they reached a small road, they all heard the familiar sound of a motor vehicle heading right for them.

" **You hear that?** " Someone asked as they turned and saw a police car heading right for them.

" **Yup, I got a nice surprise waiting for them**." SR6 said as she pulled out a frag and pulled the pin and counted before tossing in right into the middle of the road.

" **Police**." Another said as they prepared to take cover.

" **Was**." SR6 said just as the car drove over the grenade they never saw, just as that same grenade blew up.

 **BOOM**!

" **Shouldn't have come up in a car**." SR6 said as they all kept moving, leaving the burning wreckage behind as they kept the pace, soon reaching their destination. An old warehouse on the edge of the sight with fire escape stairs on the side that lead to the roof.

" **Alright, up those stairs people, move it!** " SR leader told them as they all went up the stairs

" **You know, if we were anyone, we would have just purposely ran into a corner**." One of them joked as they went up the stairs.

" **Good thing we're not**." Someone replied as they reach the roof of the building before taking positions to guard it should the need arise.

" **All teams, report**." SR leader ordered as they surveyed the site from their position and even with the lack of light and snowfall, they could still make out some fires.

" **This is SB2, at exfil point**."

" **This is SE leader, we're reached exfil point**."

" **This is SR leader, we are at the point**." Their own commander relayed.

 **This is SY leader, at the exfil**."

" **So what now?** " SR6 asked as she looked at their CO as he pulled the trigger that all their 'presents' were connected to.

" **Now** ," SR leader said just before he pushed the button. " **We let the fireworks distract them as we make our escape**." He finished as he brought his thumb down.

 **BO-BOO-OM-B-BOOM!**

" **Now that, was an explosion**." One of them said aloud as they all watched as each and every site was blown to bits. From the workshops to the fuel depot, everyone was reduced to burning rumble. They could also assume that more than a few people were caught in each blast as with the power station, it started a chain event of the whole place going dark due to the electrical overload knocking out the generators. But they didn't stick around long as they used the distraction the blasts gave them and flew off to sea, to meet up with their sub and get the hell outta there.

* * *

 **I was so tired at the end there that I almost gave up and removed a whole section. Man, I've been exhausted lately. Anyway, hope you enjoyed that little work. I'll try and write something longer next chapter but until them.**


	32. War in Kyushu

**Alright, I'm rested and ready to go, all assignments have been completed as the education department struggles to cope with this lock-down sure we're doing this online courses but some of my classmates have internet issues which really messes with the whole plan. Hell, my folks are trying to get some of my college fees back as they didn't pay for me to just sit at home and study by my lonesome. The worst part for me is that most of the people I know in my course don't live in my city so we can only do study sessions…..online.**

 **Also, I've redone the last chapter and it should be up and ready to go by the time this is posted. I did so due to some errors I missed the last time so I looked over the whole thing to try and correct as many of them as I could. If I still missed some, please let me know.**

 **Tf330129: Thanks.**

 **Blaze1992: I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't. This drone was more of a low tech flying droid.**

 **Vein Bloodborne: Thanks for that, I'm now fully rested and ready to go.**

 **Dontus –not Donut- Powers: Yes, we have already spoken about your concerns, I hope that the corrected last chapter addressed that.**

 **7: Thanks.**

 **Greer123: Yes, and that will came to pass in this chapter.**

* * *

 **Chapter 32: War in Kyushu**

 **27th November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:(Early Morning-around 7am)**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Tokyo Settlement:**

 **Viceroy's Palace:**

"What's the situation on the ground?" Cornelia asked her faithful night over a video call, despite the doctor's orders, like Nonette predicted, the man was up and about. This time leading the investigation into the officially classified terrorist attack on one of their chief suppliers in area 11. Currently, she along with her sister and the Knight of Nine were in the viceroy's palace, having been forced to have this meeting at 7 in the damn morning.

"Your highness, things are a downright mess here. Most of the facilities are destroyed or badly damaged." Guilford, who still had some visible bandages over the skin what wasn't covered up in winter gear, replied as he stood in front of the camera to talk with them. The background was nothing but rubble and some still raging fires that their firefighters were battling.

"And the casualties?" Euphemia asked from her seat next to Cornelia's, worried for the civilians that must have been caught in this.

"We're still finding survivors but the plant has over a thousand workers, many of whom are unaccounted for." Guilford answered her question, having helped in the recovery with more than a couple bodies.

"I see." Euphemia stated sadly, already seeing that her hopes for a small loss of life would not come to pass.

"Guilford, in your opinion, what happened there?" Cornelia asked him, wanting to get as much information about this as they could.

"My lady, if I had to give an opinion at this early time, I would say that this attack was expertly planned and carried out, in such a manner befitting our own special forces." Guilford answered honestly, something that caught them off guard as the man had always held their special forces above most others, to compare this to their handiwork showed that it was carefully planned and masterfully carried out.

"Special forces you say?" Nonette spoke up, wearing her full knight of round attire as a way to keep warm, even if the building had central heating.

"Yes, from what survivors say about the attackers, they wore different armour to the regular Black Knight terrorist we face, they also were equipped with what seemed to be jetpacks and an extremely durable body armor, we already have a small group saying that they shoot some of them but they didn't go down." Guilford relayed to them, sound like he was sceptical but at the same time, open to the idea of such a thing being accurate information.

"It's not that Zero is a damned magician, now he had troops with jetpacks?" Cornelia muttered to herself, already feeling a headache coming along from all the stuff Zero pulls seemingly out of no-where, which didn't make thing easier seeing how she still had the whole day in front of her. "Very well, finish your preliminary examination of the site and then return."

"Yes, you highness!" Guilford replied as he cut the connection to get back to his duties on site. At the same time, another soldier, much lower in rank to Guilford, burst into the room and saluted them.

"Your highness!" The soldier cried with a visible nervous sweat.

"What is it now?" Cornelia asked, feeling like she was done with the day.

"Mam, they…" The solider started but paused, as if he was scared of his own message.

"Spit it out already!" She yelled at him, in no mood for this.

"The enemy has destroyed the main bridge into Kyushu!" The soldier reported to them, surprising them at this second act of terrorism so far from the last one.

"What? What would the Black Knights stand to gain from that?!" Nonette questioned.

"The enemy is not the Black Knights, your highness. They came from the sea, the navy is responded but, but they have already completely cut off vehicle access." The soldier relayed to the what he had been told.

"The Chinese? How the hell did they even breach that far in? Where was the naval ships stationed to stop them?!"Cornelia demanded, furious that the vessels who's only task was to keep the Chinese at bay had somehow failed.

"Have they declared war?" Euphemia asked him, having received no such thing from the federation, at least, one that she knew of.

"No your highness, all the craft, they reported to be barring the flag of Japan! Naval command doesn't know what to do, if they fire on the larger Chinese vessels, they'll declare war while the smaller Japanese ships are firing on them!" The soldier reported to them, having been told that their own ships couldn't fire and in turn suffered some losses as they retreated.

"Goddammit, they're using the flag of a dead nation to shield their landing operation and attack us." Cornelia said to herself as she along with her friend and sister got up and walked down from the thrones they say one towards the door. "What are our losses, and the enemy strength?"

"The 2 Helicopter carriers in the area are pulling back lest they suffer an attack, however 6 of the 10 destroyers are in route to try and halt their landing attempts. At this time, we've lost 14 patrol ships, 6 fighters and 16 portmans." The soldier answered as he walked to follow along with them, keeping a respectable distance. "With the reinforcements we stationed there, we have over 1,500 men but they are hopelessly outnumbered 4 to 1 at least."

"Order them to pull back before they all die." Nonette ordered him, surprising Cornelia.

"Nonette?" Euphemia asked her, clearly confused by her order.

"We won't beat them with such small numbers. We didn't plan for the damn Chinese to hide behind another country's flag so we can't really bring down the hammer, at least for now." Nonette told them her reasoning before she went on. "Right now we need to get as much info on this as we can so we can properly plan out counter-offensive."

"Very well, I see your point." Cornelia replied, seeing the logic on her words before she turned to face the solider and gave him her orders. "Get those orders to our troops!"

"Yes, your highness!" The soldier replied with a salute as they ran down another hall to deliver the message.

* * *

(6 hours later – With the Black Knights)

" **We hereby declare the resurrection of Japan, as a lawful, independent and sovereign nation!** " A tall but skinny man in of early 40s announced as he stood in the middle of the screen, behind him were dozens of Chinese made Gun-Rus.

" _Atsushi Sawasaki, leader of the forces that have occupied the Fukuoka military base and large parts of Kyushu, was chief cabinet minister in the Kururugi administration in the former nation of Japan." The newscaster stated as they showed picures of Sawasaki dating back to Genbu winning the office of Prime Minister. "After the war, he fled to the Chinese Federation with a small portion of the former government but us apparently making his move due to large civil unrest caused by Zero." They went on as they showed one of the many archive pictures of Zero on the side of the screen._

" _Whether the Black Knights have played a role in these unfolding events is still under investigation_." The second newscaster announced which was when the TV was paused by a gloved hand.

"So, they've made their move." S.K spoke up as he along with the rest of the Black Knight command staff, watched the news in the main board room on-board their flagship. Form what they knew of the situation, it was around 1pm in Japan.

"Sir, we just got word from Kyoto. They had no knowledge of Sawasaki's plan. They were just notified about his unilateral claim over the sakuradite mining rights." Tierra read out the report off his data-pad as he pushed up his glasses.

"Zero it's our move. What are your orders?" Kallen asked as they faced their leader, who was not wearing his mask/helmet as the helm sat on the table next to him.

"I admit, this government in exile pitch is something I didn't foresee but it won't matter much." Lelouch replied as he touched a few buttons on his control panel to get a more in-depth view of the battle from their satellites. "We're heading down to earth, Kallen, you are to remain here, on board the Sakura." He gave out his orders as he stood up.

"But sir-" Kallen was quirk to stand as well as the rest of them got up from their seats as well.

"I understand your desire to fight off these invaders but your new machine is still going through the final testing process, you wouldn't want to throw away all of Kaya and Rakshata's hard work, would you?" He asked her as Rakshata and kaya had spent almost all their time building a brand new knightmare for the girl once their machines had arrived the other day. Last he checked, the had barely ate or slept because of it.

"…No sir." Kallen conceded as she knew that she didn't even have a machine at present, seeing how those two removed the RWS from the Guren to study it.

"Fret not, it should be ready by the time operation Island Getaway is ready to begin." Lelouch said as he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder before he reached for his helmet. "The rest of us will depart in two hours, be ready by then."

'Sir!" They all replied as the begun to leave to carry out their orders.

"Have our naval contingent move assets into the area but keep them under both the Britannian and Chinese radars. It's time we test out our own submersible frames." He ordered as he placed his helmet onto his head and let the thing lock into place with a satisfying hiss.

"I can already tell that the naval command will be pleased about that, they've been itching for some actions for a while now." Lockon joked as they all left the room to get ready.

"Up till this point, it wasn't their place to attack." Tierra told him, not at all effected by their need to fight.

"Enough chatter, we have an invasion to repel." S.K. said as he walked right on passed them along with L.M. they weren't going to help with this Sawasaki affair as they had their own objectives to ready for.

* * *

 **27th November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Train heading down south.**

"Cecile, what do we know about this?" Nonette requested as she along with the Glaston Knights and the A.S.E.E.C. travelled down south via a military train.

"My lord, it appears that the Sawasaki's forces are working together with a small terrorist cell operating in Kyushu, when the naval operation begun, they cut off vehicle access from Honshu and Shikoku which we believe was done to prevent reinforcements from quickly reaching our forces." Cecile reported back to her as she along with some other engineers did some maintenance on both the Bors and the Vincents. Lloyd was on the other end of the car working on the Lancelot. "That combined with Chinese federation support from the Leodong Military district, they have already occupied Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki and Oita and are expanding their control into Kumamoto and Kagoshima."

"Dammit, it's only been less than a day and already they've taken almost the entire of Kyūshū." Nonette cursed as she looked towards the overhead clock and saw that it was only 3pm. At that time, Lloyd walked right into the car, followed by Rai who was in his pilot gear.

"Well, we didn't have that much military assets on the ground, did we? We were so focused on the Black Knights, who operate mainly in Honshu that we didn't reinforce them there." Lloyd said as he grabbed some papers from the desk he passed to read about how far they were. "There's also the issue of using this government in exile as a shield as the boys in the navy can't just blow them up wholesale like we planned."

"Speaking of which, what's the word about the Chinese presence?" Rai asked, having been wondering about that ever since he first heard of this.

"According to General Cao, the Chinese Federation is merely providing humanitarian support and is not acting in violation of their pact of non-aggression with Britannia." Cecile told him what the official statement had been, though they could all guess the real meaning of those words.

"Which means we can't attack them under international law. Oh, they really did think of everything." Lloyd said with a smirk as he could only imagine how pissed their naval captains must be at not being able to do much of anything other than monitor the enemy.

"Lloyd, now's not the time." Cecile scolded him with a glare.

"Oh sure, sure." Lloyd waved her off before he looked up towards the Vincents but didn't see their pilots in the car. "How are the Glaston knights?"

"They are being prepped now." Nonette replied, having left the boys to themselves so they could get dressed. She follow suite later. "Are you sure your new flight systems are combat ready." She turned her attention the self-proclaimed sociopath as their units were fitted with float systems of his design.

"Honestly, no. I didn't have time to properly test them with all their regular combat systems operational. They'll fly but they'll suck up a massive amount of energy to do so and keep up combat performance. That does most of all for my Lancelot." Lloyd told her honestly, not bothering to sugar coat things.

"And why is that?" Nonette inquired with an angry looking glare, having recalled that he had supposedly been doing nothing but working.

"Schneizel put in a top priority request for us to aid another branch of A.S.E.E.C. in finishing the personal knightmare for the Knight of Ten." Cecile interjected, shocking the knight of round while disgusting her at once.

"Bradley, that blood crazed weasel?" She asked them, having had few meetings with the so called Vampire of Britannia and each and every one of them left her with a bad taste in her mouth.

"Right you are, he also requested that I supervise the construction of his Valkyrie Squadron Vincents, all that took quite a bit of our time and I was unable to properly adjust their float units." Lloyd finished the explanation with a sour look to his face. He never enjoyed working over a screen, especially since Bradley and his Valkyrie were in Hawaii.

"My lord, if I may ask, where is Viceroy Cornelia?" Rai asked, having expected to see the viceroy leading the charge.

"She's prepping to lead the naval counter strike, our job is to try and break through enemy lines and cause as much havoc as we can to aid her." Nonette informed him as she walked over to her Bors.

"But can we really accomplish that with only 6 machines?" Cecile asked, worried that they had too small a force to be of much use.

"We don't have the luxury of having anymore flight capable frames, if we waited for gloucesters and sunderlands to be ferried across, we'll be torn to pieces and if we move inland to destroy any opponents firing on us to clear a landing for them, we'll head up doing most of the job ourselves anyway, at best they'll be the ones to carry out clean up operations." Nonette explained to her, having had the same thought then the viceroy and her brainstormed the plan.

* * *

(Same time)

Meanwhile, out at sea, Cornelia was personally commanding a naval task force in its attempt to land near Buzen. Key word being try as with the snowstorm reaching far out into the water, they could not little to aid their landing craft as the Chinese fired on them from ground positions. Their Portmans were having just as much luck as the federation backed troops fired depth charges into the turbulent cold water.

"Princess Cornelia, we're taking too many losses, this blasted snow storm is preventing us from using our air-power." Guilford advised as he along with the Viceroy stood on the bridge of America-class aircraft carrier which was acting as central command for this operation. Along with then were 2 Wasp-class carriers and 3 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. With the weather as bad as it was, they couldn't use their strike craft to bomb out those enemy positions or land Knightmares via VTOL.

"So you're saying that we'll need to delay our operation?" Cornelia bit back, furious that this day went from bad to worse so quickly, and how it seemed even the ever silent Gods were against them.

"It seems that way, with the way the weather is now, we can't take out those enemy placements hammering our landing forces." Guilford replied as they were informed of another troop transport that was sunk by enemy fire from the shore, which meant they just lost another 30 troops.

* * *

(With General Cao and Sawasaki)

"It was a wise move for us to strike just before this storm hit. If the weather forecast is accurate, we have another 9 hours to strengthen our grip on Kyūshū." General Cao commented as they were watched as the Britannian forces trying to come in from the sea were pushed back on the monitor. It seemed it was good foresight to bring along those depth charges launches, despite their age.

"And with our numerical advantage, we're going to prevail in this battle." Sawasaki gloated, already feeling like they had won the day, which got on the nerves of Cao but it was instructed to aid him however he could, so he'll keep his opinions of this pencil thin political nobody to himself.

"Which will be the first step in our plans to take area 11." Cao said as he looked to the side and ordered a solider in federation green to instruct their landing troops to bulk up their defensive lines. If need be, they'll make the imperials bleed for every inch of land in their procession.

* * *

(With Euphemia - Viceroy's Palace)

" _What measures have you put in place?_ " While this was going on down south, Euphemia had remained in the capital to coordinate their resources from here. At present, she was in a video-conference with the second most powerful man in the empire, the prime minister.

"We're issued evacuation orders to the surrounding areas and have placed the navy into high alert to try and stop any more ships from entering. They have been ordered to halt any vessel and conduct a search of them, if the vessels don't comply and allow for this search….they'll be considered hostile and dealt with accordingly." Euphemia finished off as if the words left a bitter taste in her mouth. At her answer, Schneizel nodded his head in understanding.

" _Cornelia's orders I imagine_ ," He said to her, knowing that she would have never ordered for the intentional sinking of ships in such a manner, she would have wanted them detained and ships taken to imperial ports. " _Either way, might I recommended a media blackout the events, we wouldn't this to frighten people or embolden others to arms_."

"I'll see it done. In the meantime, could you perhaps try and get into contact with the Chinese Federation leadership?" Euphemia asked of him as she took his advice to heart.

" _I'll see what I can do, perhaps the EU foreign Minister can be of some help_." Schneizel replied, already waving to Kannon who was off screen to get those arrangements in order. " _Truthfully, I was hoping that that wouldn't go through with this, it'll take considerable effort on my part to soothe the emperor, lest he declare war in response to this_."

"He wouldn't, we don't even have the troops and equipment on hand to deal with such and the Black Knights." Euphemia protested, knowing that Area 11 would surely became a battlefield if those orders would came down.

" _That may be true but the Totomo Agency has been making leaps and bounds in their weapons research, I imagine he'll use a war as one big, weapons test_." Schneizel told her honestly, wanting her to understand that his hands were tied and how he himself was displeased with this, especially on how their father knew that his privately backed agency had such armaments in the works. He must have underestimated the OSI. " _In any case, I wouldn't worry about the Black Knights too much_."

"Why? Wouldn't this be a perfect chance for Zero to strike?" She asked him, she had already ordered that critical sites receive double their regular guard and for the military to be on high alert for any terrorist activity.

" _I doubt that they are working with the federation seeing how intelligence suggests they're in bed with the EU. That would explain their weaponry and gear. No, this wasn't something they would partake in_." Schneizel assured her, which got a weight off her back as she couldn't imagine how they'll fight both the federation and her estranged brother.

"I see, that makes things easier for the moment." Euphemia replied, sounding relieved by that piece of news as she had been unable to get into contact with Zero or any Black Knight officers. "I'll speak with you soon brother, but right now I have bigger concerns to handle."

"I completely understand, I wish you the best of luck." Schneizel replied to her with a smile as he the call, leaving her to brainstorm how she'll combat this mess.

* * *

(With Schneizel – Pendragon)

"Are you sure about this, you highness? Not telling her the full thing?" Kanon asked his prince as the man ended his call with his sister. Like in area 11, it was winter here in Pendragon and it showed with all the snow outside.

"I am Kanon, she has enough to deal with at the moment," Schneizel said as he looked over to the side of his desk where a marble chest board had been set and appeared to be in a middle of a game. "Telling her that there's a high chance that Zero will intervene in this on our side will only complicate things."

"But why are you so sure that he'll do so?" Kanon asked, finding the notions of their enemy aiding them highly unlikely. At his question, Schneizel lifted the black king piece off the board.

"Because," he started as he moved the black king into attack position on the board, along with it was the Black queen and a knight, facing off against a small portion of white pawns that seemed to be by themselves. "He isn't the type of person to appreciate someone else butting in the game."

* * *

(Ashford)

"I can't believe that after the work we put into the end of year festival, it's getting cancelled." Shirley bemoaned as she looked towards the cloak hanging from above the doorway, it was 3:15 but they still had a lot of work to go through.

"I wouldn't think too much about that when we're at war." Rivalz said as he went through some documentation on his laptop.

"War?" Nina meekly asked from seat on the other side of the table.

"This 'government in exile' is just some smoke and distractions, this is just the Chinese federation getting the first punch in." Rivalz explained as he pointed towards the TV in the corner playing the news, only muted so that they could work.

"But we're be on the frontlines then?" Nina replied, getting scared at the notions of war breaking out.

"Afraid so, they've already started to take Kyushu, who's to say that they don't try and take Honshu as well." Rivalz stated, sounding worried himself.

"But Cornelia has a whole bunch of troops her, and there's even a knight of round." Shirley spoke up to try and counter him.

"A lot of good that's done against Zero." Rivalz muttered to himself, though they all heard it which didn't help the mood.

"Nina, about the paintings we're requested from the museum." Milly spoke up, dispelling the negative mood and redirecting them towards less depressing topics.

"Oh, I'll be heading there in the afternoon. I still need to finish my project." Nina replied, all but forgetting the previous conversation for the sake of keeping herself calm and steady.

"Project?" Milly questioned with a curious glint to her eyes.

"Yeah, it's the one I've been working in since high school." Nina informed her, which was surprising as they thought she finished it a while ago.

"Oh yeah, didn't you get a scholarship to study at the Imperial Colchester Institute? Why you turn it down again?" Rivalz asked as she had received send scholarship in her final year of high school after some talent scouts saw her presentation.

"Well, I….I wasn't too sure if I would cope, Nina nervously tried to explain as she finished the rest with a whisper and blush. "Being away from my friends for so long."

"Thanks Nina, we'll miss you too, but you shouldn't not look into this, just imagine all you could get done in their science department." Shirley told her as she came forward and gave the meek girl a big hug, one that looked she was both enjoying while being uncomfortable.

"Lloyd attended there and look at him, a head knightmare researcher and developer under prince Schneizel himself." Milly pointed as her husband didn't really speak of his time there but he did admit it's a great institution.

"Okay, I'll look into it, but no promises." Nina agreed as Shirley stopped hugging her and went back to doing her own pile of paperwork.

"Agreed, by the way, Rivalz, how's that paperwork going?" Milly asked their secretary.

"I'm still knew deep in it, Kallen out sick so we'll a man down. I sent Lelouch and Suzaku their copies in an email but Lelouch says he'll only be done by the end of the day." Rivalz moaned as he felt like his shoulders were made of lead.

'I'm meeting with Reyla today, maybe after we'll talk, I'll know what to do with these feelings of mine.' Shirley thought to herself as she nervously worked through her portion, she had held this off for as long as she could but she realized that she needed to address this now, before something big came up.

* * *

 **27th November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **Chūgoku block:**

 **Yamaguchi Prefecture:**

 **Ube:**

"That's amazing, you got a score of 85% on the float simulator." Cecile praised Rai as he sat in the cockpit of the Lancelot as they lowered the red float unit onto the state of the art knightmare. They had reached their destination just as it went dark and were now currently prepping for their units to fly over to Kyushu to partake in the operation.

"Thank you, I thought that'll I'll would have done worse. It was quite challenging." Rai replied to her as like the engineer, he was wearing a jacket over his pilot gear while she wore think boots, gloves, a coat and some hear muffs to keep warm.

"Don't feel so bad about it, the average with the Glaston knights was 78%" Nonette said as she walked up to them, holding a hot cup of tea or coffee, Cecile didn't know. "You have a real future as pilot, Kid. Who knows, maybe you'll become a knight of round like me some day." She finished as she took a sip of her drink to keep herself warm as she was still wearing the full gear of a knight of round, cape and all.

"I don't think that would happen, my lord. You may be my patron but-" Rai tied to speak up by Nonette cut him off.

"But nothing, you have shown skills and loyalty Rai. With a good word from me, maybe the emperor will be willing to consider it." The Knight of Nine told him, giving him hope of a promotion that no number could dream of.

"Alright, final preparations will be done in about one hour but the weather will only clear up in four. I suggest you all use the bathrooms before you go since this will be a long affair." Lloyd informed everybody as he walked over to them, wearing full on winter gear which made him look like a total tool, not that he cared as he pulled out a pocket watch and saw that it was just past 8pm

"Lloyd!" Cecile walked to him with a hand raised to give him a piece of her mind as he slowly moved away with his hands raised to try and plea for a mercy that would never came.

* * *

 **27th November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **East China Sea:**

 **450km North-West of Fukuoka**

"You all understand your orders?" At the same time this was happening, Zero along with several others were on-board a submarine cruising under the waves towards the epicentre of this whole mess. At present, Zero was giving his final order to some knightmare pilots.

"Yes, Zero." The group of trained naval pilots saluted him, to which he nodded his head.

"Good, then get to your machines, the operation begins in 3 and a half hours, we'll use the last vestiges of the storm to mask our approach into the combat area." Zero ordered them as they all saluted him one last time.

"Sir!" And with that, they walked out of the command station of the sub, leaving Zero along with the submarine commander to speak with the JLF, having requested this teleconference to request that they stay out of this.

"Sir, if I may," The captain started but paused mid-way when Zero turned to face him.

"Speak." He told the man as he walked over to one of officer's stations and observed them carry out their task on their terminal. It didn't help that the lights had been turned off, leaving the command centre bathed in red lights which made the man appear more frightening than usual.

"Are you sure that this is the correct course of action?" The captain asked him.

"Yes, we will not work with Sawasaki, he's only a means to an end for the Chinese." Zero said as he moved to the centre of the room and observed the enemy positions on the tactical screen built into the table top.

"But he was once a part of the government, wouldn't his word about fighting got Japan be more creditable?" The captain asked, though he himself wasn't Japanese, some of the crew stationed on-board were and had similar concerns.

"In most instances, including this one, no. Whenever other countries give aid to people like him, it's only because they gain a large advantage. All that would change is Japan's master as we'll go from a colony of Britannia to a 'member state' of the federation." Zero stated with a shake of the head, leaving them to all imagine life under the federation.

"I see, I have family in the federation. They say that living among the people is living in near crippling levels of poverty." The captain spoke up, seeing the logic on his words.

" _So what you want for us to do, is play dead when Britannia strikes back? Even though we have assets in Kyushu?_ " General Tatewaki asked, as he along with Tohdoh and his holy swords were on screen discussing this very thing.

"That is correct, General Tatewaki. It is these times that one must show what principles they abide to and what they give merit to." Zero replied as he turned to face the screens.

" _Still, I find this difficult to do, the enemy will be exposed and yet, we must do nothing_." Asahina spoke up, his face may have had a smile but he was angry about the fact that were being asked to stand down at a time like this.

" _He's got a point, Zero. What's you real objective, your mid-term goal?_ " Chiba spoke up. To her question, all Zero did was chuckle before he answered the question.

"That's easy, to make Japan its own independent nation." Zero replied to them, shocking all that heard this proclamation, even the crew on duty paused in their duties to look at him.

" _Independent?_ " Senba repeated.

" _A nation? Are you serious right now?_ " The old general asked him, wondering if Lelouch/Zero was indeed crazy.

"But sir, is that even possible? Even with the swell of members and new equipment." The captain jumped in, sounding nervous about taking on an empire like Britannia.

" _Our enemy is an empire that controls a third the world, how would be even begin to match that?_ " Chiba asked him, it was impossible was not even the EU could match them in terms of logistics, especially now that they've lost most of their African holdings.

" _She's right, what you saying is simply impossible_." Urabe hated to admit, but she was right. A war with the empire would become one of attrition no matter what you plan was, and that was one aspect that they simply couldn't match.

"Then answer me this: Are you all content to just angering the colonial government, winning a few small-scale battles every now and then? Waiting for someone else to do what you say is impossible?" Zero asked them, speaking down to them as if they were mere children, something that got on their nerves as the recalled how he was of the same family that oppressed them, it seemed that even he had an air of arrogance to him but at the same time, when a guy would catch bullets and choke people to death with nothing but his mind, he had the right to be a cocky bastard.

"Who? The EU? The Federation?" He went on, stepping forward towards the screen as if glaring into their very souls. "Do you honestly believe that if you wait long enough, that some great chance will come? Don't make me laugh!" He yelled at them as he took a step back and waved at the communications officer to end to the call, but not before he left them with a final message. "If we don't stand up and do it ourselves, that chance will never came! We have to make our own chances."

"My, you might have just left them with a good impression." Liu Mei spoke up from the side of the room, being the only member of the Zero squad present as the rest made sure their machines were ready and prepped for launch.

"It matters little right now, came. We have a battle to ready for." Zero replied as he along with his personal squad member walked out of the room towards the hangar bay.

"Sir yes sir. I'm been itching to shoot at something again." he replied as she followed in step behind the man.

"I trust that S.K and L.M. are on route?" Zero asked her, having made plans for those two to reach the main island without issue.

"Sure thing boss. They'll be ready to kick off operation Island Getaway as soon as we finish up here." Liu Mei replied, having heard from Alleujah that they along with the men they needed, had made it safely without delay.

"Good, we'll moving into the grand finale of this whole Area 11 operation. Even if the colonials catch wing of our plans, they'll too far along for them to do anything about them." Zero stated with a ghost of smile as his eyes flashed crimson for a moment as his connection to the dark side made his blood leap at the prospect of battle and proving his superiority over his enemies, of making them heel to his power, of destroying all that stood in his way. At that same moment, they reach the hangar and along with their own machines, they saw another type of knightmare being prepped for battle.

This one built for naval combat.

* * *

 **27th November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:(5 hours later – 11pm)**

 **Unknown Region:**

 **Milky Way Galaxy:**

 **Earth/Sol-3:**

 **East China Sea:**

 **275km North-West of Fukuoka**

" **GOOhN team, prepare to launch**." The captain looked down at his watch and saw that it was 11pm on the dot, meaning it was time to begin the operation so gave the other. Within specially built launch tubes, water was slowly pumped into them while the each individual GOOhNs sat inside one of them.

"GOOhN team, preparing to launch." The GOOhN team commander replied as he went through final preparations for launch as his tube filled with sea water, already at 45% capacity.

" **GOOhN team, your mission orders are as follow: You are to launch from the submarine and make your way towards the Chinese federation naval forces. Your job is to sink at least 2 carriers and 7 other large vessels in addition to causing havoc among the remaining vessels**." Zero gave them their orders over the com channel from the submarine.

"Yes sir. We're get it done sir." The commander replied as he sat back and waited for the tube to fill, having reached 60%.

" **You are also to try and block any additional forces from reaching the shore, you have full permission to sink any and all vessels of your choice**." The masked man added in at the end, wanting to cause maximum damage with this attack as a means of demonstrating that the Chinese should think twice to return after this.

"Yes sir!"

" **GOOhN team, launching!** " The launch operator stated as the tube reached 100% capacity, allowing them to open them even at this depth of 60m without issue.

"This is GOOhN commander, launching." The commander called out as he swam out of his tube towards their target, not far behind him were the rest of the GOOhNs assigned to the mission. As the last one launched, the sub changed directions and instead begun to move for the heart of the enemy formation.

"Alright people, once the last GOOhN has launched and five minutes has passed, we're surface and launch as well." Zero said as he and his personal squad boarded their machines and awaited for the time that they surface so that they could join in on the fun.

" **Roger that**." Tierra confirmed over their private channel.

" **I just hope I don't get shot down**." Alleujah stated as he got comfortable in his seat, only to see Lockon laugh at him.

" **If you did, I'll make sure you never forget it**." The Irish sharpshooter stated as they went silent.

* * *

(With Cornelia – 30 minutes later)

"Finally, the weather has finally cleared. Which means we can resume the landing operation." Guilford stated as he looked out the window and saw the storm had finally passed, leaving only light snow-fall but that wouldn't be a problem.

"Get those birds in the air, I want those enemy hard points bombed out and burning husks on the double!" Cornelia yelled as she turned to one of the officers on deck.

"Yes, you highness!" The officer replied as she relayed those orders to the flight deck crew, who were already clearing the runway of any frost and snow to allow for take-offs.

"Do you think that'll they break through?" Guilford asked her, looking at the clock and seeing that Nonette and her people would be beginning their attack any time now.

"As painful as it is to admit, the Lancelot has proven effective in battle. With Nonette and the Glaston Knights backing, I can't see them failing." Cornelia replied, swallowing her pride as the thought of needing the Lancelot. She had been through too much because of these god-forsaken islands to not be able to adapt.

* * *

(With the A.S.E.E.C unit)

" **I hope you boys are ready, we launch in 30 seconds**." Nonette told the Glaston Knights and Lancelot as they all stood in formation near the waterline, facing Kyūshū.

" **We're prepared and ready to do our part**." Claudio replied as he reached for his order's signature glasses and placed them on.

" **Especially since these Chinese bugs think they can mess with us and get away with it**." David added in, itching to get into combat.

" **Keep your head about this, David. We can't afford mistakes. Not with our float units consuming as much power as I've been told they will**." Edgar reminded him as he checked his float attachment on the monitor and saw everything was all green.

" **He's right, we need to strike and strike fast. If we can take out their main base and capture Sawasaki, the rest of their forces will lose their excuse for being here and will have to withdraw**." Rai spoke up as he gripped the control columns.

" **I can't believe we're working with an eleven**." Bart muttered to himself, before he found himself cut off by the Knight of Nine.

" **What was that Bart? Last I checked, that eleven has been producing better results than the rest of you combined**." Nonette cut him off with a harsh reminder. One that brought back memories of their fallen father and brother.

" **10 seconds**." Cecile announced to them, breaking up any fight before it could start. With only seconds to go, Nonette merely chose to breathe in….and out before focusing her eyes on the mission ahead.

" **Bors unit, now launching!** " Cecile announced as the countdown hit zero.

" **Launching!** " Nonette yelled back as she punched it, firing up the float unit and taking to the skies. Seconds behind her, the rest of them took out and formed up behind her as they made their way towards their objective.

" **Alright, let's go!** " David cried as they rocketed towards Kyūshū.

* * *

(Kyūshū Military base)

"The Enemy has appeared to have launched a squadron of bombers but they're moving just as fast a fighters." One of the people manning the radar reported as they picked up the small flight of knightmares heading towards them.

"I have picture." Another reported as the main tactical screen changed to show the live images being sent to them from their forces. The sight of 6 flying knightmares both bringing awe and fear to them.

"Knightmares." Sawasaki observed, rather confused and slightly intimidated by such an advancement in knightmare tech.

"They're not being transported, you mean to tell me that they're flying on their own?" Cao asked furious about this new development.

"Wait, zoom in on the white one." Sawasaki ordered as he pointed towards the Lancelot in the back of the formation.

"Yes sir." One of the officers replied before they zoomed in the best they could on said unit. Yes, now he was sure that was the unit.

"Is that?" Cao asked, having come to the same conclusion that Sawasaki did.

"That weapons report we received. So it's really is true. This so called Lancelot really exists." Sawasaki muttered to himself as he felt a nervous sweat form. They had wished that the reports of a 7th gen machine had been misleading but now they will have to contend with 6 of them from the looks of things.

* * *

(With Lloyd)

"Rai was correct about that last thing, the military force trying to occupy Kyūshū block is fighting under the former minister Atsushi Sawasaki, if they lose him, then the new Japanese government would collapse almost immediately, and with that the Chinese forces will lose their excuse for being her and have to retreat or risk siting a war." Lloyd spoke up as he and Cecile monitored the systems of all 6 machine from the safety of the train car, out of the cold.

"But they still have to fight through a small army to get to him." Cecile pointed out as they were expected to be outnumbered 12 to one at the very least.

"With the knightmare thy have, it shouldn't be too difficult. I did design them after all." Lloyd brushed her worries aside, having faith that his masterful designs will make up for the numbers gap.

"Except the Bors, as you mainly reverse engineered captured enemy tech to build it." Cecile reminded him with a smile, enjoying how he visible deflated at that one.

* * *

(Back with the fighters)

"This is proving to be easier than I thought." David said as he danced around the missile fire from the enemy attack copters before firing on them with his rifle, blasting apart 3 before they scattered.

"Well these float packs may be energy pigs, but they sure can make you move!" Edgar agreed with him as he fired off his slash harkens and was able to strike two other copters, downing them.

"Keep on task, we need to break through this before we go below 60%!" Nonette reminded them as she dodge around the enemy fire, never breaking her stride towards their goal as she fired her VARIS every now and then whenever an attack copter got too close, completely destroying them.

"Yes, my lord!" They all replied as they worked their way through the enemy counter-attacks, scoring more and more kills as time went on and they closed the gap between them and the base.

* * *

(Back on the base)

"They're broken through the third attack wave!"

"We've lost 35 attack helicopters!"

"Dammit, how the hell can a knightmare more so well in the air?!" Cao yelled at them as they stood there and listened to update after update which did little to help with their moods.

"Send up the forth attack wave, have our anti-air unit pepper the skies with missiles and shells if you have to!" Sawasaki ordered , not caring that those same attack copters may become victims of friendly fire, all that mattered as taking out those knightmares!

"Yes sir!"

"Sir, report from the 3rd naval strike force." Someone ran up to Cao and whispered the information into his ear. Which seemed to be bad news based on his reaction.

"What you do mean they're under attack?! Those ships are clearly marked and registered as Chinese Federation Navy!" Cao yelled in fury.

"The Britannians are going after our ships still at sea? Why? Don't they realise such an act can lead to war?" Sawasaki asked him, what were they thinking? If the empire was willing to go this far, then their whole plan would be ruined!

"Sir, the enemy is unidentified but we can confirm that they are not Britannian." The solider told them both, before informing them of the rest of the message.

* * *

(Out at sea)

" **I see large submarine, most likely ballistic missile. Taking it out**." GOOhN 3 said over the radio as he zeroed in on a large submarine which appeared to have noticed him based on how it was trying to get away.

" **Roger, ballistic missile submarine to be destroyed**." GOOhN Commander repeated as GOOhN 3 aimed one of its arms towards the sub and form its forearm-mounted launcher, it fired two torpedoes towards the submerged target. The sub try to avoid it but within less than 20 seconds, both torpedoes impacted and detonated on the side of the hull near the stern, causing a chain reaction which lead to the one or two of the missile payloads to blow up while on-board.

" **Shame they can't fight back**." GOOhN 5 said as she cruised on the surface towards an enemy destroyer, using the cover of night to fire her back-mounted anti-ship missile towards. Lucky for them, their CIWS spotted the thing and was able to blast it apart before it did damaged but by then, she had already dived again.

" **Don't feel shame, just fire**." GOOhN commander reminded them as he fired off his own torpedo volley.

" **I'm heading up, there's a destroyer just waiting to be destroyed**." GOOhN 6 reported as she spotted a lone destroyer trying to escape. Not on their watch.

" **Don't get cocky**." GOOhN commander told her as she raced to the surface but rather then used cruise along it, she jumped out of the water and landed on the ship's deck, right in front of its main gun which was facing the wrong way.

" **Sorry bout this, but you're all about to go for nice little swim**." She teased as she locked onto all the sailors on deck with her Chest-mounted 12.7x108mm DShK before spraying them, blasting them to bits as she aimed her torpedoes towards the main gun and bridge, firing them at such close range that she was nearly caught in the explosions before she turned around and jumped right on back into the water.

"Knightmares? From the water?" Meanwhile, they the Black Knights machines were going to town on them, the commanding officer of the whole naval strike force was being filled in to the scope of the attack.

"Yes sir, a force of 15 knightmares are attacking us. We have already lost a Helicopter carrier, 2 destroyers and a frigate." The crewman reported as they could make out their ships firing missiles and cannons towards the waterline, trying to destroy this attacking force.

"Tell those idiots to focus on anti-submarine warfare, force them to the surface and destroy them!" The Commodore yelled as he watched as the other ship commanders wasted munitions like this.

"But sir, one surfaced and boarded a destroyer, it destroyed the bridge before jumping back into the water!" The same crewman reported to him, having just received word of the damaged ships fate.

"What, since when can a Portman do that?!" The yelled as he knew that Portmans could climb ships using their slash harkens but jumping onto one was impossible! However, before he could question the truth of the report, something else came up.

"Incoming contacts on the radar!" A crewman called out as they picked a small group of unknown heading right for them.

"What now?!" The aging commodore yelled as he walked over to the radar station to see for himself.

"They're fast, faster than a fighter….They're knightmares!" The crewmen informed them as he tried to identify what was approaching.

"Since when do knightmares fly?!" How the hell did their intelligence fail so miserably as to now know that the Britannians had flying knightmares!?

"They'll be on top of is 20 seconds!"

* * *

(With the knightmares)

" **Targeting enemy carrier**." Tierra said as he locked into a smaller ship. " **Firing**." He said as he pulled the trigger, firing a powerful blast aimed for the rear of the vessel, blasting through armour and deck before causing an explosion down below.

" **Nice shot Tierra, but we still have more to clear of**." Lockon said as he took aim and started firing, aiming for the visible CIWS he could make out to destroy their capacity to fight back against such high speed targets. " **Let's see how well you with a few holes in your hull**."

" **Heads up, we have fighters inbound**." Liu Mei picked up on her radar as she looked to the side to see 23 Chinese fighters heading for them.

" **Alright, we have a job to do. Wang Liu Mei and I will deal with the fighters, you three focus on sinking those ships!** " Zero ordered as he and Liu Mei turned their machines and flew toward the new threat, firing as they did.

" **Yes sir!** "

"Just like piloting an interceptor through space." Zero breathed out as he recalled all the flight training he did for this type of thing before he opened up his missile pods and aimed his railguns at the approaching fighters. " **You know, you shouldn't bunch up like that, it almost makes this too easy**." He mocked them as he fired away, his barrage managing to destroy 5 of the fighters and damage another 7, forcing the rest to scatter to avoid another hit like that.

" **Spread them out and blast tem out of the sky**." Zero called out as he chased after one and shot it down with his rifle before swinging round and bringing up his shield to block a missile strike from another chasing him.

" **You don't need to tell me twice, these guys are amateurs**." Liu Mei responded as she dodged an attack from three fighters before aiming her MMI-M1001 190mm anti-aircraft shotgun at them and pulling the trigger, sending dozens of steel balls at near Mach speed towards them, shredding through all three and causing them to explode mid-flight.

" **They sure are putting up a solid fight**." Alleujah said as he flew around the Chinese ships, firing with both his rifle and 35mm vulcan cannon hidden in his shield.

" **That shouldn't stop you from completing your mission**." Tierra informed him as fired on a ballistic missile submarine that had been forced to the surface, destroying it with a single shot.

" **Yeah, yeah, I know. Just saying**." Alleujah replied as he spotted a new target. " **I'm going to that carrier, it looks like they're trying to get more birds into the air**."

" **Go for it, I'll cover you**." Lockon responded from his position high up in the clouds as he turned his attention to assisting Alleujah as he flew in fast and low. Soon he had covered the distance was about the fly by the carrier at deck level, so he levelled both his weapons as the fighters and crew he could see.

" **Sorry about this, but we never said you may launch**." Alleujah said over the speaker as he fired on them, ripping apart people and causing the aircraft to blow up, adding to the carnage. " **I see another one, I'm going for it**." He said as he picked up another one, it had no fighters ready to take off which must have meant they were still underdeck or they had already taken off. Either way, he was sinking this one.

" **Hold on a sec** ," Lockon said as he fired on it, his shot hitting near the rear, under the waterline. Causing a rush of water to explode out of the water. " **That should slow them down**."

" **What you hit?** " Alleujah asked as he saw that ship begin to slow down.

" **Their main rudder. They won't be making any quirk turns now**." Lockon replied, like it was no big deal that he pulled off that shot but knowing him, it probably was.

" **Looks like they've handling thing fine here. Shall we make out way to the base and end this farce?** " Liu Mei asked as she fired her shotgun at another group of fighters, managing to it most of them.

" **Let's. You three, once you're done, head back the sub**." Zero said as he saw this happening as he slashed a fighter in half from above with one of his blades.

" **You sure?** " Lockon asked as he fired on the missile banks on a frigate, causing the entire mid-section of the ship to explode in a fiery ball of metal and smoke as the two broken halves started to sink beneath the waves.

" **If their forces are as strong as these ones** ," Zero said and without looking, he was able to shoot and hit an enemy fighter coming up from behind just before it could fire its missiles at him. " **We shouldn't have too many problems**." Oh, this was too easy for him, but then again, having the foresight of a force user make these kind of things….predictable.

" **Roger, we'll finish up here and return to the sub**." Tierra answered as he directed traffic with their GOOhN team as they mercilessly attacked the vessels from below while they fired from above.

" **Let's go**." Zero stated as he and Lie Mei turned around and blasted off towards Kyūshū to settle things.

* * *

(Back with the Britannian)

"What?" As this went down, their actions soon reached the Britannian command as Cornelia, Guilford and others were informed of this attack.

"Someone is making a move against the Chinese fleet?" Guilford questioned the message.

"Who is attacking? I gave no order." Cornelia demanded, wanting to find and personally punish this fool for disobeying orders.

"Your highness, we believe it to be the Black Knights." The crewmen reported to them as their scouts and own ships reported that the machines flying in and attacking the Chinese were the same model as machines already classified to be of terrorist origin.

"The Black Knights?" Cornelia felt her eyes widen at that.

* * *

(With the Lancelot)

"Zero?" Rai repeated as he destroyed another attack copter while blocking the fire from another with his blaze.

* * *

(In Tokyo Settlement)

"Lelouch?" Euphemia whispered to herself as she heard this news.

* * *

(In Pendragon)

"Zero." Schneizel said, being the only one not surprised by this latest development as he chuckled to himself. "You made your move. I was beginning to think that you wouldn't show. How faithless of me to think that." He said as he moved the black king towards the white rook placed in the middle of three white pieces. Looks like the enemy fort would fall before sunrise.

* * *

(Back on the battlefield)

"What's the situation then?" Nonette asked as they found themselves within sight of the base itself, even with all this enemy fire.

" **My lord, the Black Knights are engaging the Chinese ships using a mix of their land knightmares and unknown submersible frames**." One of the officers on board one of their ships close to the actions reported back to them.

"So they have machines that can swim, do you?" Nonette laughed to herself, thinking about how prepared this Zero is for war and how much he must want them to burn to have spent so much effort preparing. "Makes me feel you you've been holding out in us, those machines could fly and yet they've never made use of it before today."

" **It would seem that Zero really is a man that always has another trick up his sleeve. However why is he working with us?** " Guilford asked the big question. The man himself had stated that he'll never work with them in the past, so what's changed?

"I don't think the 'why' is important right now, his attack is spreading even more chaos through the enemy lines and with their ships under attack, they can't protect the smaller ones boasting the Japanese flag. Which means," She started as she saw the info dawn on her friend's face.

" **Which means that our ships can fire on them unchallenged. You all heard that, Fire on those supply ships! I won't every single one of them at the bottom of the sea!** " Cornelia ordered their ships to move in and as much as she hated to say it, but to aid the Black Knights in wiping out the rest of the enemy force.

" **Yes, you highness!** "

"You do that, we'll continue making our way to their main base and end this whole invasion with one fell swoop." Nonette said as she fired on one of the tanks on the ground that was trying to shot them down.

" **Good luck, Nonette**." Cornelia told her, showing some emotions in the form of worry for her, which she was grateful for as there weren't a lot of people Cornelia actually cared for in this world.

"You too, Nelly." Nonette answered as she cut the line just as they landed on the outskirts of the base. They were in the final stretch now, by daybreak, one way or another, this would be over.

She would make sure of it

* * *

 **Sorry about this but I'll cut the chapter here, though I didn't expect for things to be this long as planned for this whole thing to be over and done with the one chapter but now it seems it'll spill into the next one. Still, it was very exciting to right about this as I was able to really bring the Black Knights into full swing with their submarines and GOOhNs. It would normally be bad for them to show off that kind of power but as I stated earlier in the chapter, this plans have reached the point where that doesn't matter.**

 **We don't know much about the Float unit used by knightmares but according to the people manning the radar in the occupied Britannian base, the Lancelot appeared to be moving faster than a fighter plane. As all they all had different maximum speeds at different altitudes and configurations, to get a baseline, I'll had to establish an average speed which worked out to be around 2,454.2km/h or Mach(SI standard) 2.311. Since they say the Lancelot is moving faster than that, I added 10% of the total speed to itself and got 2,699.62km/h or Mach(SI standard) 2,542. I know that's a pretty high speed for something that shouldn't even be aerodynamic enough to even more past the speed of sound but its anime, so we'll let that slide.**

 **Just for more detail, the Bors is larger and therefore, it's the slowest of the bunch with the Vincents being the middle ground. The Vincents are around 15% slower(top speed for them is 2,294.68km/h) and the Bors is 20% slower(top speed would be 2,159.69km/h) So it's accurate to say that they were flying towards the base at the fastest speed the Bors could manage.**

 **The battle as you all just read, is going down different to cannon Sawasaki wouldn't even bother talking to them as unlike before when he knew Suzaku and the fact he was young and relatively inexperienced, he had no idea the identity of the pilots as the Bors is still new to the field, so are the Vincents and the Lancelot never received the same notoriety as cannon due to events that make the unit and its pilot famous simply not happening.**

* * *

 **By the way; here's the info on the Bors as I forget to put in the last chapter.**

 **Model Number: ZEOP-01**

 **Unit Type: Prototype**

 **Overall Height: 5.74m**

 **Gross Weight: 8.09 metric tons**

 **Power Source: Yggdrasil Drive, Energy Filler**

 **Armour Material: Tungsten; Unknown metallic alloy recovered from captured Black Knight frames**

 **Manufacturer: A.S.E.E.C**

 **Operators: Holy Britannian Empire**

 **KMF Generation: 7** **th**

 **Role: Trial Unit; Multi-purpose**

 **Developed from: GINN; Lancelot Club**

 **Equipment** **:**

 **Standard: Blaze Luminous Great Shield; Factsphere Sensor; Landspinner propulsion system.**

 **Optional: Float system**

 **Armaments:**

 **Fixed: 2x Slash Harkens**

 **Optional: 1x Master Vibration Double Bladed Axe; 1x VARIS rifle**

* * *

 **UMF-4A GOOhN**

 **Overall height: 4.87m**

 **Weight: 8.01 Metric Tons**

 **Weapons(All fixed): 2x Forearm-mounted torpedo launchers – 7 per pack; 1 x Back-mounted forward facing 42mm Anti-air heavy blaster cannon; 1 x Chest-mounted 12.7x108mm DShK; 2 x Back-mounted forward facing 135mm Submersible launched SAM; SSM Anti-ship missiles packs– 4 per pack; 2 x Shoulder-mounted 35mm anti-armour blaster cannons**


End file.
